Ganja, Azerbaijan · UTC+4 ☆

Ganja is in the Azerbaijan Time timezone (AZT/UTC+4), with no daylight saving since 2015.

Ganja is Azerbaijan’s second city, sitting in the western part of the country near the border with Armenia. It runs on Azerbaijan Standard Time, UTC+4, the same clock as the capital Baku. Since 2015, Azerbaijan dropped daylight saving entirely, meaning the city holds a fixed four-hour offset from London all year.

At UTC+4, Ganja shares its clock with Dubai and the United Arab Emirates. When it is noon in Ganja, it is 8am in London and 4pm in Tashkent.

A city that has changed names with history

Founded over 2,000 years ago, the city was known as Ganja for much of its history, then renamed Yelizavetpol under the Russian Empire, then Kirovabad during the Soviet era, then restored to Ganja in 1989. Each name carried a political moment. The clock, however, followed Soviet and then Azerbaijani standardization: the whole republic, one time.

Daily rhythm in western Azerbaijan

Ganja sits far enough west that solar noon arrives around 1:30pm in summer, slightly off the clock. Residents adapt instinctively: markets open early, midday heat drives a natural pause, evenings extend late in summer. The bazaar near Javadkhan Street has operated on similar solar rhythms for centuries, independent of whatever the official time was called.

Convert 9am Ganja time to other cities.

Sources

• IANA Time Zone Database
• Azerbaijan State Statistical Committee
• Swietochowski, Tadeusz. Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition. Columbia University Press, 1995.