Ganja F-Y-I

Ok, so how about a little information about my city? Since lots of you have more than snickered at the name, I figure it's time for a little education about the lovely city of Gence (pronounced Ganja).
Gence is Azerbaijan's second largest city (pop apx 300,000). Located on the Gence river, the city was rebuilt in the 12th century after an earthquake in 1139 destroyed the original town that was founded in the 5th century, east of its current location. In 1918 Gence was the provisional capital of a briefly independent Azerbaijan. The name 'Ganja' is not drug related... it originates in the Ganjak tribe. The city was re-named Elisavetspol from 1804 to 1918, changed back to the name of Gence in 1918 until 1935, when it was renamed Kirovabad. It reverted once more to Gence in 1989.
The road from Baku to Gence is one of the country's most scenic. The area is famous for the Kapaz mountain and the 7 lakes near it, particularly the Goygol - the blue lake. The territory is perfect for swimming, hiking or for a pic-nic. (Unfortunately, if you are a foreigner like myself, Goygol is currently closed to you. However, Xacikend is lovely, and very close by with just as scenic places to pic-nic).
The city was the birthplace of many poets and is considered the country's literary centre. People in Gence are generally well educated. Not surprising considering all four state, and two private higher educational institutions function in the city with 24,000 students enrolled per semester.
With ample streets and avenues and well designed parks, Gence is more aesthetically pleasing than most Azeri towns. The city retains a strong German influence in its architecture.
With a vast main square, the city has its fair share of Soviet architecture, some of it quite good, like the grand city hall with its immense colonnade. Lenin's statue is now gone from the main square, but the city retains a lot from previous times, both in architecture and in character. (Incidentally, the main square now holds a statue of the former Azeri President H. Aliyev).
Although most Christians are now gone (Armenians, Russians and Germans) there are several churches worth a visit: a ruined Armenian church in the south of the town, the Alexander Nevski church (now the puppet theatre!) and a 19th century orthodox church. Another local historical treasure is the bottle house, a two-storey building decorated with about 50,000 glass bottles!
Although it is similar in size to Tacoma, Gence is a relatively quiet city. Unfortunately, with all its modern conveniences, and many wonderful historical sites, the city offers very few places to eat out. There are three larger restaurants in town, where women are welcome to eat and usually the food is quite nice. As for local entertainment, the best that I could recommend is generally when events come to town such as concerts or the circus (currently in town, and very good might I add!)
I hope that this gave you all a little more background on the city I am currently living in!

In order to provide a more historical context, a majority of this information was gathered from the following site:
http://www.travel-images.com/az-ganja.html