Sumgayit city
Sumgayit is one of the largest cities in Azerbaijan, after Baku. It obtained city status in 1949. Once, it was called as “City of Youths”, because of builders and first residents of the city were youths. According to historians, Medean tribes lived in the area in 7th millennium B.C. During the construction boom, when the foundation of the executive power building was being excavated, remains of an ancient caravanserai along with personal items and kitchenware was found at the site. A popular legend about the city states that a caravan was passing by the area. A male by the name Sum and a female named Jeyran, who were in love with each other, were among the travellers. Due to a lack of water supply, Jeyran became thirsty and Sum went to look for water. Sensing trouble of losing Sum, Jeyran screamed Sum qayıt, Sum qayıt (Sum, come back). The city name is believed to have originated from this legend.Under other version, the city name has been formed from the name of an ancient Turkic tribe «SUGA» or «SUNGA». The termination "-it" in ancient Turkic languages meant plural. «Sumgait "-" Sunga "s" - territory where sungas lived. One more version of the origin of the name connects it with the flowing of a little Sumgajyt River in the north area of the town. This river has not outfall and completely dries up in the drought. That river waters came back, by not flowing to Caspian Sea, ancient Turkic tribes called it as« the river which waters come back ». Names of river and city arise from this word-combination. Before foundation of the city, there were 4 objects under the name of Sumgayit: settlement, river, lighthouse and railway station. Rests of bridge and caravanserai found as a result of archaeological excavations, prove that, there were caravan ways here. First written information about Sumgayit was released by English traveler G.Berrou, in 1580. In the entrance of Sumgayit, the monument – 15 stones as a spiral and wings of pigeon – is a symbol of the town. 15 stones mean 15 Soviet countries, spiral – forever and the pigeon – peace. The wings are in the direction of Sumgayit station and the sea. Thereafter, 15 stones principle was not taken into consideration, during the reconstruction of monument. The sculptor is Suleyman Habib Hajiyev (Shakinski) (1920-2000). On the confirmed municipal arm, turquoise color means color of sea water, dark blue color – the sky, considered as one of symbols of a city a monument "Pigeon" symbolizes that Sumgayit is a peaceful city. The city is known for chemical industry. In spite of the fact that industrial emissions have broken ecological equilibrium, there are enough sights in the city. One of the first Houses of Culture named after J. Jabbarli is here. Besides, house of Culture named after N. Narimanov, Central City House of Culture, Jorat house of Culture also operate in the city. Along with this, Shildren’s Music Schooll named after Gara GArayev was launched in 1954.