Pirgulu seismic station

Shamakhi region is situated in southeast foothills of Greater Caucasus, in 118 kilometers from the capital. Shamakhi is one of the historical cities of Azerbaijan. The area of region is 15 km2, with the population of 85000. In 12 km to the northeast from Shamakhi there is Pirguli region, which has height of 1400 m above sea level, there is an astrophysical observatory named after Nasreddin Tusi. Shamakhi is the center of Shirvan. Shamakhi in the 6th century was the capital of the Shirvanshakh feudal state. Ancient structures and objects found here at archeological excavations prove that 2500-3000 years ago this city already existed. Ancient Greek historian Ptolemaeus indicated Shamakhi among Albanian cities. Shamakhi long time was under the auspices of Arab caliphate. In the 20th century there was strong, 9-10 magnitude, earthquake in the Shamakhi seismoactive zone in result of which more than 80 thousand people were lost, both the city and vicinities were razed to the ground. Despite that , in the last 100 years there were no such strong and catastrophic earthquakes, but other quite strong earthquakes were recorded. The Shamakhi all the history was considered as a zone of the increased seismic activity.