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 ****. 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.