[3] The only comprehensive study of the monument by researcher and journalist Gohar Isakhanyan acknowledges the complications in researching it: “To this day’ she concludes ‘the inhabitants of Shvanidzor do not know whether Baba-Hadji is of Azerbaijani, Persian, or Turkish origin, as all local Muslims used to be called “Turks.” Regardless 2 legends prevail on the origin of this site.

[4][1] According to another legend, the Armenian villages, in order to save themselves from the Turks, would climb the nearest mountain.

With the purpose of breaking through the Armenians’ defense, the Turks would cut off the water having found the pipes with the help of an old woman.

Food and water were offered to visitors, as was tea from ‘good quality samovars.’ Both Armenians and Azerbaijanis climbed up to Baba-Hadji to pay their respects and do matakh (religious sacrifice of animals).

Village elders are described as still “swearing on Baba-Hadji rather than their own mother and father.” However, the existence of said mausoleum is largely unknown to the younger generation.