Top Choice Palace in Şəki
Xan Sarayı
This ornate 1762 palace building features vivid murals and dazzling coloured light streaming through şəbəkə (stained-glass) windows making it Şəki’s foremost ‘sight’ and one of the South Caucasus’ most iconic buildi…
Top Choice Historic Building in Baku
Maiden’s Tower
Top Choice Archaeological Site in Şəki
Fazıl Labarynth
Over a dozen close-packed grave sites from the 2nd to 7th centuries BC have been excavated but left exactly as they were found with pots, talismen and the bones of sacrificed animals in situ. One can almost 'feel' t…
Top Choice Architecture in Baku
Heydar Әliyev Cultural Centre
Vast and jaw-droppingly original, this Zaha Hadid building is a majestic statement of fluid 21st-century architecture forming abstract waves and peaks that seem to melt together. The real delight is simply pondering…
Top Choice Palace in Baku
Palace of the Shirvanshahs
Top Choice Piazza in Baku
Fountains Square
Endlessly popular with strollers, this leafy piazza forms Central Baku’s natural focus. The fountains for which it is named include one topped by shiny silvered spheres giving fish-eye reflections of the trees and s…
Top Choice Waterfront in Baku
Bulvar
Full of cafes, fountains and fairground rides, the central sweep of seafront park is eternally popular with families, amateur musicians and courting couples. Striking modernist buildings here include the Internation…
Top Choice Fusion in Baku
Mayak 13
If you liked Altay Sadikhzade's cartoon-esque work at MIM, you'll adore his eccentric Mayak 13 cafe designs. Marvelously absurd rope-tied abstracts represent ripped sails and intersperse a gamut of nautical bric-a-b…
Top Choice French in Baku
Paris Bistro
It's hard to believe you're more than a few metres from the Champs-Élysées in this perfectly pitched French masterpiece. It hits all the right Parisian notes down to the plane trees which curve out from an ever-busy…
Top Choice Gallery in Baku
Yarat Contemporary Art Centre
Yarat means 'create', a spirit that's in ample evidence in this centre's many thought-provoking installations that don't shy away from socio-political commentary. Even the cafe is inspired, set around a repurposed m…