Agdam
| Ağdam Ակնա, Akna |
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 Ağdam
Ակնա, Akna |
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| Coordinates: 39°59′35″N 46°55′50″E / 39.99306°N 46.93056°E | |
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| Rayon | Agdam |
| Elevation | 369 m (1,211 ft) |
Coordinates: 39°59′35″N 46°55′50″E / 39.99306°N 46.93056°E
Ağdam (also spelled Agdam or Aghdam) is a ghost town in the southwest part of Azerbaijan and the formal capital of its Agdam District. Founded in the early 19th century, it grew considerably during the Soviet period and had 28,000 inhabitants by 1989. Armenian forces captured Agdam in July 1993 during the Nagorno-Karabakh War. The heavy fighting forced the entire population to flee eastwards. Upon seizing the city, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) forces destroyed much of the town to discourage Azerbaijanis from returning. More damage occurred in the following decades when locals looted the abandoned town for building materials. It is currently almost entirely ruined and uninhabited. A notable exception is the city's mosque, which is intact but is in a derelict condition.
In November 2010 it was renamed by the NKR government to Akna (Armenian: Ակնա). It is administratively part of the town of Askeran, which is located some 10 km away.
The city's name is of Azerbaijani origin and means "white house", where ağ means "white" and dam is "house" or "attic", thus referring to a "bright sun-lit, white house" which was given by Panah Ali Khan of the Karabakh Khanate. Another possibility is that it was derived from ancient Turkic glossary meaning "small fortress". In the distant past, Turkic speaking tribes built small fortresses for their protection and safety.
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Wikipedia