The first historical sources about the city can be found in Ptolemy's work "Geography" written in the II century, which is considered the first atlas.
Astara was the capital of the Talish district until 1747, and later the governor of Astara moved the Karakhan capital to Lankaran. When the capital was moved to Lankaran, many important ancient construction and architectural objects and fortifications were demolished.
The famous Hungarian orientalist and traveler Armin Vanberi (1832-1913) published a large chapter of the book "Turkish Lands" in Budapest in 1885, dedicated to Azerbaijan.