Sights in Southern Azerbaijan
- Sort by:
- Popular
-
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
-
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
-
metal matriarch
The emblem of Lənkəran is a formidable metal matriarch bearing a cup of tea in one hand and a sword in the other. This metallic relief is similar in style to Tbilisi's Mother Georgia but on a much smaller scale and increasingly hidden by trees on the eastern wall of the local MUM department store.
reviewed
-
Stalin's Prison Tower
Joseph Stalin was held prisoner in Lənkəran during his early revolutionary days. The sturdy brick-barrel of a tower in which he was incarcerated is now under renovation with rumours that it might one day become a tongue-in-cheek Stalin-themed café. Well there's always hope.
reviewed
-
Dosa Park
Strolling here amid all the fountains, minutely clipped shrubberies and newly mirror-glassed public buildings is especially surreal at dusk in summer, when lugubrious piped music is played from loudspeakers flanking the new, refreshingly air-conditioned Heydar Әliyev museum.
reviewed
-
History Museum
The main attraction of the History Museum is the building itself, a century-old brick mansion built in ‘Scooby-Doo gothic’ style. It looks great when illuminated at night.
reviewed
-
Heydar Әliyev
One of the town's dominant statues is, of course, to Heydar Әliyev, who stands to attention in Dosa (Heydar Әliyev Memorial) Park.
reviewed
-
Hazi Aslanov
One of the town's dominant statues is to local WWII general Hazi Aslanov, beside an iconic lighthouse tower.
reviewed
-
