Sights in Azerbaijan
-
A
Şahidlər Xiyabani (Martyr's Lane)
High above the city centre's southwest corner lies the sombre memorial, Şahidlər Xiyabani (Martyr's Lane) of Bakuvian victims of the Red Army's 1990 attack. Those martyrs were swiftly joined by many more Azeris who died in the Karabakh conflict. A small memorial to British and Commonwealth troops killed around Baku during WWI has been erected nearby, causing considerable controversy. After all, the British had been sent to prevent the Turkish invasion which most Azeris supported.
A small police post above it dissuades vandals. Even if graves are too maudlin to appeal, Şahidlər Xiyabani has a fine new Turkish-style mosque and at the edge of the gardens there's a…
reviewed
-
B
Carpet Museum
Formerly a Lenin Museum, this solidly neoclassical building now houses an interesting Carpet Museum, which charts the history of Azeri carpet making and includes over 1000 rare and beautiful rugs from Azerbaijan, as well as Iran and Dagestan. A guided tour (AZN3 extra) helps to put the designs in context and to explain the significance of their symbols. In the same building are the far less compelling Theatre Museum and Museum of Independence.
reviewed
-
C
Faxri Xiyəbani Cemetery
The Faxri Xiyəbani Cemetery, where Heydar Әliyev’s grave is the first place that any dignitary is likely to be taken to on an official visit to Baku.
reviewed
-
D
Maiden’s Tower
This tapering 29m stone tower is Baku’s foremost architectural icon. Its century of construction is the subject of much debate, though its present form is 12th century.
reviewed
-
E
Funicular
Get to Şahidlər Xiyabani by Funicular from the sea front, or marshrutka 39T or 177 from behind Bakı Soveti metro.
reviewed
-
F
Museum of Independence
In the same building as the Carpet Museum is the far less compelling Museum of Independence.
reviewed
-
G
Theatre Museum
In the same building as the Carpet Museum is the far less compelling Theatre Museum.
reviewed
-
Cümə Mosque
Şamaxı’s only real sight is the big, sturdy Cümə Mosque. The original mosque on this site was supposedly the second oldest in the trans-Caucasus. Excavations of its 10th-century incarnation can be seen in the grounds where a little nodding-donkey pump has nothing to do with oil – it draws water for the congregation’s ritual ablutions. Today’s mosque building was erected in the 19th century, damaged during the civil unrest of 1918 and not restored until recent years. Nonetheless, the powerful, bare stone interior columns exude a feeling of great antiquity and the imam, dressed in fine white gown and mufti hat, is generally very happy for visitors to look around.…
reviewed
-
Ateşgah Fire Temple
The unique Ateşgah Fire Temple is one of Azerbaijan’s most remarkable sights. It stands on the site of a natural gas vent that was sacred to Zoroastrians for centuries, though this temple was actually built by 18th-century Indian Shiva devotees. They lived in the surrounding pentagonal caravanserai and performed extreme ascetic practices such as lying on hot coals or carrying unbearably heavy chains. Such eccentric behaviour is depicted by a number of mannequins in the museum section. But the temple’s centrepiece is the flaming stone hearth with four stone side flues that also spit dragon breath. At least when the caretaker bothers to turn on the gas. The original…
reviewed
-
Carpet Museum
The Carpet Museum is housed in the rebuilt palace of Ehsan Khan, Naxçivan’s 18th-century monarch. Despite the şəbəkə windows and attractive exterior porches, the building isn’t quite as impressive as Şəki’s equivalent. Nonetheless the rug displays are well chosen if you want to learn the difference between a kilim and a sumax or palaz, or to recognise the four main styles of Azeri carpet making. The ghoulish centrepiece is a totally non-ironic silk-wool carpet portrait of a young Heydar Әliyev, replete with Soviet medals. Two side rooms relate to the history of the Naxçivan khanate, replicate the khan’s cushion-throne and gratuitously add photos of Yerevan…
reviewed
Advertisement
-
mud volcanoes
On top of otherwise unremarkable Daşgil Hill, some 10km south of Qobustan are an astonishingly weird collection of baby mud volcanoes . Here a whole family of 'geologically flatulent' little conical mounds gurgle, ooze, spit and sometimes erupt with thick, cold, grey mud.
It's more entertaining than it sounds - even when activity is very modest you get the eerie feeling that the volcanoes are alive. And normally the place is delightfully peaceful, if not completely deserted.
If driving, easiest access is from the Әlət junction, 15km south of Qobustan. Follow 'Şpal Zavodu' signs, but keep straight ahead after crossing the railway. Keep to this unpaved track for 3km then…
reviewed
-
Qobustan Museum
Qobustan is an open-air museum littered with neolithic rock drawings. It has some 4000 inscriptions that go back 12,000 years (along with some 2000-year-old Latin graffiti to boot). Tours are guided by helpful staff and are worth paying for, as the details of the petroglyphs and what they portray are largely incomprehensible to the casual visitor.
Stone Age stick men hunt and boogie down in the petroglyphs. Their dances are thought to have been accompanied by the Qaval-Daş (Tambourine Stone) - a rock that has a deep, resonating tone when struck. While at Qobustan, don't miss the 10km (6mi) detour to giggle at the quaint flatulence of a 'family' of mud-volcanoes.
reviewed
-
Qobustan
Behind depressing Qobustan town, barren rocky hill-crags rise from the semi-desert. But it was not always thus. Around 12,000 years ago the Caspian Sea level was some 80m higher. The Caspian foreshores were lush with vegetation and Stone Age hunter-gatherers settled in caves that were then just a short walk from the waters. The remnants of these caves remain etched with around 6000 fascinating petroglyphs (simple stone engravings).
Even if you have no particular interest in ancient doodles, Qobustan's eerie landscape and the hilltop views of oil-workings in the turquoise blue Caspian are still fascinating.
reviewed
-
Şirvan National Park
Around 100km south of Baku, this park is outwardly just a featureless flat plain but it provides Europe’s last remaining natural habitat for wild Caucasian antelopes (ceyran). To stand any chance of seeing these loveable creatures you’ll need a vehicle. If you don’t have your own 4WD it’s possible to rent the park’s bus (for petrol money) but making necessary arrangements is farcically awkward, as the park has no phone. Salyan- and Lənkəran-bound buses pass the park gates where there’s a small reception hut.
reviewed
-
Yanar Bulağ
If you're in Astara, don't miss the curious Yanar Bulağ, in nearby Әrçivan village. Here, spring water gurgling from a metal stand-pipe is impregnated with methane. Put a lighter to it and it burns, giving a magical little display of the wet and the warm. It's shaded by a modest brick-domed pavilion, right beside the Lənkəran-Astara road, 6km north of central Astara.
The water's flammability is secondary to its remedial properties for locals, who collect it by the gallon and seem bemused by visitors' flaming antics.
reviewed
-
H
Çingis Klubu
The much more polished Çingis Klubu celebrates TV journalist and national hero Çingis Mustafayev who died in 1992 filming the Karabakh war. Photos of his life are complemented by a small but very well-chosen gallery of modern Azerbaijani paintings. A basement ethnographic room illustrates typical crafts. There’s also an air-conditioned cinema, whose 6pm screenings usually have English subtitles. Most films shown are somewhat more intellectual than typical Azerbaijani movie-house offerings.
reviewed
-
Albanian Church
The brilliantly renovated round-towered Albanian church in Kiş village has been lovingly converted into a very well-presented trilingual museum. It’s the best place anywhere to learn about mysterious Caucasian Albania, the Christian nation that once covered most of northern Azerbaijan. In fact the church site goes back well beyond the Christian era and glass-covered grave excavations allow visitors to peer down on the excavated bones of possibly Bronze Age skeletons.
reviewed
-
Museum
The town’s interesting museum housed in an 18th-century domed building that has been used variously as a silk shop, restaurant and zurkhaneh (‘house of strength’ – for the practice of a unique Iranian sport based on sufi philosophy). If you feign ignorance of Russian maybe the museum’s superkeen curator won’t force you to peruse the books he’s written to celebrate Ordubad’s ‘celebrity’ citizens.
reviewed
-
Yanar Dağ
Yanar Dağ, one of the Abşeron’s stranger sights. Locals claim that a natural gas vent on this modest hillock was accidentally ignited by a shepherd’s cigarette back in the 1950s. A 10m-long wall of fire has been blazing away ever since. It’s best viewed at dawn or dusk. There are plans to gentrify the site but for now the only ‘facility’ is a semiderelict concrete çayxana offering very pricey tea and jam (AZN8).
reviewed
-
Khan’s Palace
Şəki’s foremost ‘sight’ is the two-storey Khan’s Palace, which was finished in 1762. It’s set in a walled rose garden behind two huge plane trees supposedly planted in 1530. The unique façade is decorated with silvered stalactite vaulting and geometric patterns in dark-blue, turquoise and ochre, magnificently setting off the intricate wood-framed, stained-glass windows known as şəbəkə.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
beaches
Lənkəran's beaches can't be recommended for swimming due to chunks of concrete and ruined building parts that remain submerged since the rising Caspian swept away its former Soviet era promenade. And part of it is off-limits for military use. Slightly nicer seafront areas (though still not really swimmable) are to be found near the Titanic restaurant and at Kanarmeşa, where two vaguely attractive restaurant gardens overlook the waves.
reviewed
-
medieval wall
A fine medieval wall protects the eastern ramparts of the town - you'll see it on the left as you approach the town from the highway. The fortress was built in 1750 by Panah Khan. The Azeri army used the town heights to fire barrages of Grad missiles down onto Stepanakert and surrounding villages. It was conquered by a stunning night assault up the cliffs on 8-9 May 1992, a crucial turning point in the conflict.
reviewed
-
Roman Graffiti
Around 2km from the petroglyphs at the bottom of Böyük Dash Mountain, a fenced-in rock sports the easternmost Roman inscription ever discovered. It was chipped out by Julius Maximus, a centurion of the 12th Legion, probably on a reconnaissance mission from Roman Syria during the reign of Emperor Domitian (AD 51-96).
Guides know under which stone the key to the surrounding fence is hidden.
reviewed
-
Qobustan Petroglyph Reserve
The Qobustan Petroglyph Reserve is run by helpful English-speaking staff and it’s well worth paying for a guided tour: deciphering or even spotting the petroglyphs can be pretty tough for the casual visitor. Common themes are livestock, wild animals and human figures, notably shamans. Especially notable is a spindly reed boat sailing towards the sunset.
reviewed
-
Kazim Karabəkir Paşa Mosque
Not to be outdone by the Iranians funding mosques in town, Turks stumped up money to build the impressive Kazim Karabəkir Paşa Mosque behind the bazaar. This grandly-domed stone edifice has elegant missile-style twin minarets and splendid gilt inscriptions on the white marble doorway. However, if you're coming from Turkey you'll be likely to have seen dozens of similar structures.
reviewed