Baku, Azerbaijan

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Baku, the capital city of the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, is the largest city in the Caucasus and was once the fifth largest city in the Soviet Union.

Located on the easternmost tip of the country it sits on the banks of the Caspian Sea and is believed to take its name from the Persian bad kube which translates as 'city of winds'.

History

Modern day Azerbaijan accounts for only the northern third of the historic country of Azerbaijan, which was divided between the Russian and Persian Empires in the early 19th century.

Baku, the capital city, is a lively, attractive and very interesting city but is surrounded by some terribly polluted landscapes thanks, in no small part, to the country's oil industry.

Although there is evidence of habitation dating back to the Bronze Age, the first historical reference to Baku appears in the 9th century AD. Baku flourished as a port after the Shirvan-Shas, who ruled the state of Shirvan from the 6th to 16th centuries, transferred their seat of power to Baku after an earthquake devestated the Shamakhi region in the 12th century.

In the 13th and 14th centuries the city came under Mongol control until Peter The Great took the city for the Russians in 1723. It returned to the control of the Persians in 1735 before the Russians regained control in 1806.

The start of the commercial extraction of oil in 1872 saw Baku become a boom town with the oil barons building luxurious mansions around the Old Town, whilst the poor downtrodden workers lived in their shadow in the slums and shanty towns. By the start of the 20th century, Baku was a hotbed of labour unrest, much of it instigated by a Georgian agitator named Iosif Jugashvili, who later changed his name to Joseph Stalin.

Following the Russian Revolution in 1918, Azerbaijan declared its independence from the Bolsheviks and even called upon the British to help it defend Baku from the advancing Turks and Germans from the east and the Soviets from the north. But the Red Army marched in to Baku in 1920 with the British fleeing overnight.

Azerbaijan declared its independence from Moscow along with many other Soviet Republics in 1991, and Baku has once again become a prosperous city thanks to the oil industry.

Society and Culture

Despite the lengthy industrialization due to the oil industry, Azeri society is still deeply traditional and the family is very important. Practices wich the west may see as nepotism are perfectly acceptable in Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan is the only country other than Iran whose official religion is Shiite Islam, however the Azeri attitude to religion is laid back and a far cry from the fundamentalism of Iran's Islamic Revolution.

Things to see

Tourists tend to be very few and far between in the Caucasus but this should not put you off as Baku is an amazing mixture of East meets West meets Soviet Republic.

Where else in the world would you be able to enjoy a cold beer in a football theme pub, walk round the corner to visit a tower constructed in the 7th century BC not a stone's throw from a Soviet-era monstrosity of a tower block?

The locals are extremely friendly and it is quite likely that you will get an impromptu tour as they show you the best bits of their city.

The Maiden's Tower is Baku's most famous tourist attraction and its image adorns what little tourist tat there is to be found in Azerbaijan. The tower is 30 m high and has a diameter of 16m with 5m thick walls. The stairs leading up to each of the eight levels actually run inside the perimeter walls. Various historians have come up with different theories as to the tower's purpose - theories which range from it being a defensive tower and lookout post to it being used as an astronomical observatory.

The impressive Fountain Square is a fantastic place to sit and watch the city go by. Unfortuantely the fountains rarely work and to make matters worse, there is now a McDonalds in the square.

The Palace of the Shirvan-Shahs is an unmistakable part of Baku's Old Town. The palace was built in the 15th century by Shirvan-Shah Kalilullah I and was the seat of the Shirvan-Shahs. Nearby is the Royal Mosque and the Keyqubad Mosque, both of which date from the 16th century.

It also worth spending an afternoon exploring the myriad of alleyways in and around Baku's old town, some of which house local restaurants in former caravanserais*.

The national football stadium in Baku, a wonderful example of Soviet architecture, is named after the most famous footballing figure to emerge from Azerbaijan, Tofiq Bahramov. Bahramov is the infamous Russian (sic) linesman who signalled that Geoff Hurst's goal had crossed the line during England's 1966 World Cup victory over West Germany*.

Getting around

Public transport is plentiful in and around Baku, but problems may occur due to buses displaying their destinations in Cyrillic.

Taxi drivers are almost homicidal in their attempts to get from A to B jostling with every other vehicle on the road for the tiniest of gaps in the traffic and the state of the taxis themselves leave a lot to be desired.

Baku taxis also have of a distinct lack of seat belts but should you actually stumble upon a taxi with seatbelts, beware, trying to use one is akin to insulting the driver's mother!

Car hire is available, but with the city's drivers driving six or seven abreast on roads designed to take four lanes, and with the local police keen to extract fines for minor infringements (invented or otherwise) it can be a very risky business


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