The city is located on the right bank of the Okhchuchay River. Historically, the region at the crossroads of east and west has been a major trading center. Until 1990, the dead-end railway line Minjivan - Kapan, destroyed during the fighting, passed through the city.
The town was given the status of a town in 1967. The city had a railway station on a branch from the Baku-Nakhichevan line, as well as a viticulture state farm.