Azerbaijan
The Land of Black Gold and Nodding Donkeys - September 2024
Situated at one of the world’s great geographic and religious crossroads, Azerbaijan occupies a mountainous zone on the southern flank of the mighty Caucasus Mountains. Here two continents meet, and many worlds commingle on the Eurasian frontier between Islam and Christendom – all under the watchful gaze of Azerbaijan’s three bigger, and infinitely more powerful neighbours, Russia, Iran and Turkey. Azerbaijan is a fascinating nexus of ancient historical empires that has only in relatively recent times emerged from a war-torn post -Soviet chrysalis, entering a new phase, whilst riding the crest of a wave of a petroleum-funded boom. Tourism in Azerbaijan is still in a nascent phase, making traversing the country more challenging, and at the same time that much more interesting.
A Brief History
The seminal evidence of human habitation in the province that now forms the Republic of Azerbaijan, indicates that Stone Age tribes inhabited the region at least 100,000 years ago. Some of the earliest recorded settlers include the Scythians during the 9th century BC. The Iranian Medes formed a vast empire that encompassed the borders of modern Azerbaijan between 900 BC and 700 BC. The region was subsequently absorbed into the Achaemenid Empire - also known as the First Persian Empire - around 550 BC, leading to the adoption of Zoroastrianism as the dominant religion.
The Macedonian empire builder Alexander the Great conducted an inexorable campaign of conquest, culminating in the defeat of the Persian Empire in 330 BC, effectively bringing Azerbaijan under his domain. After Alexander’s death in 323 BC, governance of the region remained under the rule of his descendants, until it was eventually reabsorbed into the Persian Empire in the 3rd century AD.
The Arabs controlled Azerbaijan from the 7th century – converting the areas inhabitants to Islam - subsequently incursions by Turkish nomads overran it in the 11th century. The arrival of the marauding truculent Mongols from east Asia in the 13th century saw Azerbaijan, along with everything else in the Mongol’s wake expunged and pummelled into dust, the country became the geographic centre of a Mongol empire that stretched from Syria in the west to the Oxus River in the east.
The jaw dropping Zaha Hadid designed Heydar Aliyev Museum in Baku
In the early 14th century Azerbaijan was overwhelmed by the Black Death that decimated the population, followed rapidly towards the end of the century by yet another bellicose Asian conqueror Tamerlane, who imposed perdition over the entire Caucasus domain.
The 16th century found the country once more under the dominion of what was the last great Persian Empire; by the early 19th century expansionist Russia purloined control of the region, a precursor and harbinger of what the future held for Azerbaijan. Following the atrophy of the Russian Empire and the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was established in 1918.
The ephemeral republic was short lived as the behemoth that was the Soviet Red Army invaded in 1920, and the country was subsumed into the Soviet Union as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.
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With the disintegration and atrophy of the Soviet Union in 1991, Azerbaijan once again declared independence, initiating the beginning of the modern Republic of Azerbaijan. The presidential elections of 1993 saw Heydar Aliyev – Azerbaijan’s former Communist party chairman in the 1970’s - assume power, ultimately establishing autocratic rule which his son Ilham perdures in perpetuity.
The Journey
This incredible journey commences in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku – an ancient city that is at least 5,500 years old – located between Asia and Europe on the Absheron peninsula that protrudes out into the Caspian Sea. Baku was an important staging post on the ancient Silk Road, and is still a key transport entrepôt in the Caucasus region.
The country has a population of 10 million, its economy is heavily dependent on oil and gas which comprise up to two-thirds of the country’s GDP; agriculture and the harvesting of beluga caviar from the Caspian Sea additionally contribute to Azerbaijan’s mercantile coffers.
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The city orientation tour begins with a visit to Baku’s centuries old walled inner-city – a UNESCO World Heritage Site - hemmed in by an exotically crenelated arc of medieval fortress walls, its labyrinthine cobbled streets are lined with souvenir shops and innumerable restaurants. The tapering 29-metre-high Maiden’s Tower is the Old City’s foremost totemic architectural paradigm and dates from the 12th century. The tower houses a museum that displays an exposition of the historic evolution of Baku city; a steep climb to the rooftop viewing platform is rewarded with stunning views of Baku’s horseshoe bay and the Old City environs.
Conjointly located inside the Old City is the 15th century Palace of the Shirvan Shahs, this vast assemblage of buildings is one of the masterpieces of medieval architecture of this ancient city. The palace encompasses several mosques, the palace apartments, a mausoleum, a caravanserai, a storage lake and the ruins of the palace hammam. The complex was the seat of Azerbaijan’s ruling dynasty during the Middle Ages, and was painstakingly restored to its former glory in 2003. The interior of these buildings is somewhat jejune as all the original artifacts and treasures were looted in 1538, today the palace earns revenue as a location for film shoots.
High above the city centre - accessed by a funicular - is the Martyr’s Lane War Memorial, a sombre dedication to Baku’s victims of the Red Army’s 1990 onslaught in the moribund days of the Soviet Union’s ultimate collapse. Adjacent to the memorial, in antithesis, is a beautiful bijou Turkish-style mosque, whilst a viewpoint in the surrounding gardens rewards the observer with a spectacular panorama across the bay area and Baku’s majestic cityscape.
The modern city of Baku exudes great wealth due to its oil and gas industry; Azerbaijan was the seminal country to extract and realise the potential of oil back in the 1840’s. At the beginning of the 20th century Azerbaijan generated 50% of the world’s petroleum production, that legacy is visualised in the stunning architectural skyline of the city today. Mushrooming glass skyscrapers dominate Baku - funded through vast petroleum revenues - flashy limousines and upmarket retail outlets additionally attest to the fact that Baku is a dynamic boomtown, the heart of a powerhouse petrostate.
The city’s most iconic architectural lodestar is the Flame Towers, a group of three flame-shaped superstructures that are completely covered with LED screens that display the movement of a fire. Comprising a luxurious five-star hotel, office space, residential apartments and restaurants, the complex was completed in 2012 at a cost of US$350 million, the tallest tower stands 182 metres high.
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Baku’s Miniature Book Museum is an absolute gem, unique as the only museum of its kind in the world. Serving as a repository for an eclectic compilation of 10,000 small books, the collection encompasses volumes on Stalin, Lenin and Gorbachev (a reference to Azerbaijan’s Soviet past), the Beatles, Marilyn Monroe, Princess Diana, books from innumerable countries worldwide, and numerous beautifully illustrated children’s story books.
The beautifully proportioned XII century Albanian Church in the village of Kish
Nizami Street and Fountain Square are Baku’s beating heart, its chic thoroughfare, and the place to see and be seen in. Bedecked with retail outlets and restaurants, locals promenade in their Sunday best indulging the retail delights, whilst tourists pose for photographs and frequent the surfeit of eateries, this is the premier place for chilling out and people- watching.
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The stunning Haydar Aliev Museum, built in 2012, is the most expensive public building ever commissioned. Designed by the British architect Zaha Hadid – who by reason of her architectural prowess has earned the condign epithet “the queen of curves” - when you behold this jaw-dropping architectural masterpiece, it defies superlatives, it’s the ultimate photographic Valhalla. Used as the premier location for the nation’s cultural programs, the building’s design is said to have used the leitmotiv of the signature of the titular autocrat.
Once outside Baku’s city limits everything metamorphoses dramatically, left behind is the glitz and glamour of Baku’s soaring glass skyscrapers, the flashy cars and upmarket shops. Now small provincial towns, untouched by the wealth and charisma of the capital, share the vista with nodding donkey oil wells that pepper the terrain. In this parochial landscape the car of choice is the humble prosaic Lada, no expensive Mercedes or BMW’s here.
A proud grandfather poses for a photograph with his grandson
Located a short distance outside the capital is the natural gas vent of Yanardag, at this unusual visitor site a perpetually burning 10metre -long wall of fire - ignited by the seeping of hydrocarbon gasses from below the surface - emanates out of a rock crevice. This phenomenon is rumoured to have been accidentally ignited by a shepherd’s discarded cigarette in the 1950’s - a similar phenomenon of spontaneously spurting natural gas flames was noted locally by the esteemed traveller Marco Polo back in the 13th century.
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Ateshgah Shrine is a beautifully renovated unique 17th century fire temple, with deep origins in Zoroastrianism - the world’s oldest monotheistic belief system – that provides a portal into the country’s pre-Islamic roots. Situated on the site of a natural gas vent that has long been exhausted, today the flame - housed in a tetra pillar altar in the middle of this castle-like religious temple - comes courtesy of Baku’s main gas supply.
The temple is enclosed by a pentagonal caravanserai that now contains the de rigueur accoutrements of a museum and copious souvenir shops.
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A protracted journey on the road today, travelling inland away from the coast, the scenery becomes that of a semi desert environment, extremely barren and treeless. Driving on increasingly rough sections of road up into the mountains, reaching 2,070 metres at the highest point, the towering mountain scenery gets more spectacular with every twist and turn of the road.
The initial stop today is at the 15th century Diri Baba Mausoleum, located in the town of Shamakhi opposite an ancient cemetery. The uniqueness of this two-storey gem of a building is that it is embedded in a glyptic cliff face. The mausoleum delights with the austerity of its architecture, purity of lines, and the contrast of the bright smooth surface of its walls against the background of the rough and dark cliff. Local legend has it that the eponymous ascetic Diri Baba lived and died on this site, hence the allure for pilgrims and inquisitive travellers alike.
Nestled on a hillside near the city of Shamakhi the Shirvan Domes, or Seven Domes, is a 15th century mausoleum and graveyard complex built for the Shirvan States ruling dynastic royal family. Only three of these domes endure to this day, the others having succumbed to earthquakes and the ravages of time. These structures are characterized by their octagonal bases topped with distinctive elliptical domes. Multiple elaborate tombstones are located inside the tombs and dispersed around this infecund graveyard site.
The dramatically imposing XIII century Ramana Fortress
Last stop of the day is a visit to the anachronistic village of Lahic, its cobbled main street, lined with ancient stone dwelling houses are a time capsule, a scene that has remained unchanged for centuries past. With a population of approximately 900, many of the village’s residents utilise the ground floors of their houses as workshops and trade rooms, here artisans produce authentic handicrafts such as carpets, rugs, silk scarves, leatherwork, spices and especially copperwork, which the village is lauded for. In its 19th century heyday Lahic was transacting its wares for a premium to bazaars in Baghdad, Tehran and Shiraz.
Departing Lahic, it is a spectacular drive on a road that literally clings to the mountain side, with towering cliffs above and sheer drops below. Situated in a wonderful locale, surrounded by lofty mountains, the bijou 12th century Caucasian Albanian Church of Saint Elishe in Kish is a real treasure. Inside this rotunda style ecclesiastical gem are displayed numerous artifacts found locally, comprising coins, pottery and jewellery. The church was built on an ancient cultic site dating back to 3,000 BC, predating the Christian epoch. Glass covered excavations facilitate a glimpse of bones of a Bronze Age skeleton, attesting to the historical importance of this specious site.
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Settled since at least the 7th century BC, the town of Sheki was a silk manufacturing centre as well as a stopover terminus on the Persian branch of the ancient Silk Road. The sturdy 18th century stone walls of the Sheki Fortress enclose the Khan’s Summer Palace, several museums and a handsomely restored 19th century Russian Orthodox Church. The walls and ceilings of the Summer Palace are richly decorated with florid flower motifs, exotic birds and animals. The windows are adorned with incredible wooden lattice work filled with Murano glass, this technique is called Sebeka (stained glass is mounted in a wooden lattice, fixed together without glue or nails, much like a jigsaw puzzle). The fortress was extensively restored between 1958 and 1963, its walls which extend for 1,300 metres encircling the complex are the standout architectural feature.
Transiting past endless fields growing cotton, and roadside vendors purveying sundry fruits, vegetables and fresh fish, the next destination on this tour is Ganja, the nation’s second city, with a rich cultural and historical heritage dating back to 494 BC. Ganja’s claim to fame is that it was the home of the Azerbaijan national bard Nizami Ganjavi (1141-1209). The Nizami Mausoleum, built in 1991, is a space shuttle–shaped tomb tower flanked by a series of inspiring sculptures depicting scenes from Nizami’s works. The nearby Nizami Museum is a repository for innumerable memorabilia pertaining to his delightfully sublime poetry, reverently depicted in displays of beautiful artwork and exquisitely embroidered silk carpets.
A highly colourful artwork displayed in the From Waste to Art Museum in Gala
Ganja’s Juma Mosque, also known as the Shah Abbas Mosque was built in 1606, its two distinctive minarets were added in 1776 and a complete renovation was undertaken in 2008. A number of other buildings are positioned within the mosque complex, including a highly decorative water fountain, all arranged in sedately manicured gardens.
Located on a quiet residential backstreet, the quirky Bottle House is a two-storey building-cum-artwork created by Ibrahim Cafarov, the structure is overlaid with 48,000 beer, champagne and water bottles. The construction of the house was dedicated to Cafarov’s brother who was missing presumed killed during the Second World War.
This unusual house is one of the most unwonted memorable sights of any visit to Ganja.
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Ubiquitous in Azerbaijan, there is a noticeable heavily armed police presence patrolling in vehicles and on foot, this is indicative of the mindset of a dictatorial state. Axiomatically there is very little crime in the country, locals and visitors will no doubt relish the aspect of security, and feel much more reassured about any personal safety implications.
Situated in the southeastern part of the Greater Caucasus Mountain range, the Gobustan National Park – a UNESCO World Heritage Site - is an archaeological reserve containing evidence of local human presence as far back as the Upper Palaeolithic period 40,000 years ago. A plateau of rocky boulders, rising out of a semi-desert landscape, encompasses a site that boasts more than 6,000 petroglyphs, these rock carvings comprise hunting scenes, human figures, plants, livestock, celestial symbols and much more. The adjacent informative museum, built in 2011, has an amazing interactive display portraying the evolution of life in the area, plus exhibits of artifacts found during excavations in the locale.
An absolute highlight of this wonderful peregrination was an unforgettable junket to the mesmerising mud volcanic pools and thermal lakes, also situated in the Gobustan National Park. Getting to the site was a real adventure in itself, a bone-rattling thirty- minute off-road drive in a 46-year-old Lada 4x4, most definitely shaken but not stirred. In this otherworldly landscape geologically flatulent volcanic conical mounds gurgle, ooze, spit and sporadically erupt with thick grey mud. This volcanic phenomenon occurs when pressurised pockets of gas and liquids beneath the Earth’s surface force their way upward, pushing mud and sediments along with them. Scientists estimate that these mud mounds could be up to 25 million years old.
The magnificent edifice of the Nizami Museum of Azerbaijan Literature in Baku
The commute today was through a flat featureless landscape with the occasional shepherd tending his flock, much as would have been the case for hundreds of years previously. Petroleum revenue appears not have filtered down to the country’s rural denizens, this bucolic scene is in stark contrast to the glitz and glamour of the capital Baku.
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Founded in the 18th century, the town of Quba sits on a cliff top overlooking the Qudiyalcay River. The area around Quba is extremely fertile with numerous apple orchards, conjointly wheat, vegetables and various fruits are cultivated here, the town is also renowned for its carpet production. Quba displays many large opulent mansions, this is indicative of the wealth generated in the farming industry locally, many of the largest houses are additionally second homes for wealthy Baku residents.
​The Quba Genocide Memorial was constructed in 2011 in response to a mass grave that was serendipitously discovered in 2007 during excavations locally for a construction project. This sombre and contemplative complex was erected to commemorate the thousands of innocent civilians of the town of Quba who were brutally massacred by Armenian militants in May 1918.
This visually imposing monument consists of two structures in dazzling white stone resembling a sharp-end knife, all set amongst beautifully manicured gardens. The interior walls of the building are grey, and comprise an exposition of photographs and commentaries on the genocide. In the centre of the complex is a large marble construction containing the bones of the victims that were exhumed from the mass grave.
The Red Village neighbourhood of Quba is the area where Azerbaijan’s small Jewish population is centred. There are three synagogues and a ritual bath house located here, all of which were closed and guarded by armed soldiers in the light of the Israel- Gaza war of the 7th October 2023.
The amazingly photogenic white stone Ramana Castle - situated a 45-minute drive outside of Baku – was constructed in the 13th century, and underwent extensive restoration in 1956, it is a supreme paradigm of Azerbaijan military architecture from the Middle Ages. A 15m high tower dominates the main courtyard, the castle’s 1.5m thick external walls are reinforced with battlements and strategically positioned rounded corner towers. The castle’s attraction is its extremely picturesque architectural composition, which has lent it to feature as a venue for a number of film shoots.
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​Forty kilometres from Baku, the small village of Gala is home to the outstanding open-air Historical and Ethnographic Museum. This beautifully arranged exposition presents how Azerbaijani people lived and functioned over the period from the 16th to 19th centuries. The complex contains a museum, a pottery display, a dolman, a weaving display, petroglyph fragments, a mini zoo and ensamples of dwellings from the period, including their domestic contents. The absolute highlight of site is the From Waste to Art Museum, this splendid facility is brim-full of displays of artwork all fabricated from waste materials, including paper, CD’s, screws, broken glass, every-day household objects and discarded children’s toys.
The evocative eternal flame of the War Memorial in Baku
The egregious quadrangular Mardakan Castle, built in the 12th century is a jewel of Azerbaijani architecture. The outer walls of the castle are reinforced with semi-circular blind towers located at the corners, which encloses a large courtyard containing a 22-metre-high tower. Climbing the six flights of rather rickety unsafe stairs to the rooftop is rewarded with astounding views of the surrounding area, corroborating the strategic importance of the castle’s location.
During its active years the castle was a zone of protection and shelter for the local inhabitants during an attack, as well as a defensive observation post. Dolefully, the entire building has been sadly neglected through time, a melancholy picture of fallen splendour in drastic need of sympathetic renovation. Just a modest sprinkling of fairy dust could turn this monument into a wonderfully captivating tour de force of military engineering.
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The final day of this amazing trip was spent back in Baku; with its amazing skyline of magnificent modern skyscrapers, the city resembles an architect’s playground. Here designers have seemingly let their imagination run wild in their construction remits, techniques and materials, displaying thinking outside the box of perceived design.
The Azerbaijan Carpet Museum charts the history of Azerbaijani carpet making, it displays over 1,000 rare and beautiful rugs and carpets produced using historical and modern weaving techniques and materials. The museum in its current incarnation – the structure resembles a giant rolled carpet – took over six years to construct and was opened in 2014.
A walk along Baku’s promenade - which stretches for 10km along the city’s waterfront - is a wonderful evening activity in which to partake. Here families casually walk along chatting, youngsters ride bikes and rollerblade, senior citizens sit on benches discussing how to put the world to right, and keep fit enthusiasts are indulging in constitutional exercise.
This last day also presented an addendum to revisit and photograph some of the sites seen at the beginning of the trip.
An Overview
Azerbaijan is a country of contrasts, while mega skyscrapers mushroom in the affluent modern capital Baku, life moves to the different rhythm of rural life, much as before in the timeless villages of the Caucasus mountains.
There were a remarkable number of extraordinary highlights on this trip, among them Baku’s old walled inner city, the gurgling other worldly volcanic mud pools of Gobustan, the imposing Mardakan Castle, and the anachronistic village of Lahic, these are just a few examples of the wonderful sites visited.
Azerbaijan is most certainly an under the radar destination that does not immediately spring to mind as a premier holiday junket. As an avid traveller and passionate photographer, my peregrination here revealed a plethora of amazing sites, incredibly friendly people and photographic opportunities aplenty. The fortuity to discover a country whose nascent tourism industry, and paucity of foreign visitors, has proffered this inquisitive traveller that most recherche commodity, uncrowded world class visitor attractions, a rare beast these days indeed.