Ilisu is a small stone village about 25 km from Qax, tucked into a narrow valley in the foothills of the Greater Caucasus. It sits on a rocky platform above the Kurmukchay river at around 1,400 metres and was once the capital of the Elisu Sultanate, an independent mountain polity that held out against Russian expansion until 1844. The village has one main street, but along it you will find a 14th-century defensive tower, the remains of Sumug fortress, a mosque, and an 18th-century bridge — all of them in varying states of preservation, all of them atmospheric.
Buses run from Qax's main bus station to Ilisu five times daily (roughly 07:30, 09:30, 12:00, 14:00, 17:00), making a half-day trip straightforward. The village itself takes about an hour to walk from end to end, and from the centre a footpath descends to the Ilisu waterfall — a 25-metre cascade about twenty minutes down a rocky, sometimes slippery trail through dense forest. May and June are the best months, when the forest is green and the waterfall is running high.