We started our trip flying from Perth, Australia, to Baku, Azerbaijan, where we stayed for slightly over two days. I have prepared a different post with information regarding introduction and bureaucracy to go to Azerbaijan, which you can read by clicking here.
In this post, I list how we organized those days.
Day 1
We arrived at Heydar Aliyev International Airport on Tuesday at noon. From there, took the bus to the city, and headed to our hostel, located just outside the old town. Left our luggage, and battling against jet lag, we headed there. We managed to check the following spots:
- The Palace of the Shirvanshahs is a 15th-century palace built by the Shirvanshahs. The complex contains the main building of the palace, Divanhane, the burial-vaults, the shah’s mosque with a minaret, Seyid Yahya Bakuvi’s mausoleum and there are still ruins of the baths. We didn’t love the visit, however consider it as one of the main points in Baku.
- The Maiden Tower, a 12th-century monument considered one of the symbols of the city, that we just checked from outside.
After wandering around the old town for a while, which was the nicest thing to do, with narrow alleys, cobbled stone streets and ancient walls, we headed to the Caspian Sea to wander the esplanade, see the Carpet Museum (which is indeed built in the shape of a carpet), and a view of the Flame Towers from there. Having done that, we went back to the hotel to sleep.
Day 2
We arranged for a tour bus to take us to the main points of interest outside the city. We hired that directly with the hostel, and the guide picked us up in our hotel at 9 am. We were taken to:
- The Mud Volcanoes in Gobustan: With the Gas located underground in Azerbaijan, these small holes containing mud that looks like boiling are one of Azerbaijan’s main attractions.
The most interesting part was probably how we got there. As the road is unsealed and in very bad shape, normal vans will not go in there, so 15 minutes before arriving we were transferred to some very old Lada cabs (the one we were in was from 1972 – pure USSR) that would cruise the ugly roads in a very adventurous way.
- Gobustan State Reserve: A UNESCO World Social Legacy list, this park contains caves where men have lived 20,000 years ago. Cravings and petroglyphs in the roads show this, and the place is one of Azerbaijan’s most visited (our opinion…meh, but we are finance people).
- Bibi Heybat Mosque: This mosque is located close to the city center, and was built in the 1990s, as a recreation of the mosque with the same name built in the 13th century by the Shirvanshah, which was destroyed by the Bolsheviks in 1936. Nice visit, not to devote much time but good for a few pictures (we had seen much more impressive mosques both in Azerbaijan and in other countries).
- Fire Temple of Baku (Ateshgah): located in the suburb of Surakhani, this temple was a Hindu, Sikh and Zoroastrian place of worship. The complex consists of a courtyard surrounded by cells for monks and an altar in the middle and was built during the 17th and 18th centuries. The natural eternal flame went out in 1969, after nearly a century of exploitation of petroleum and gas in the area but is now lit by gas piped from the nearby city. Nice visit as well, and good place to learn about the Sikh and Zoroastrians, which we didn’t know about.
- Eternal Fire (Yanar Dag): a natural gas fire which blazes continuously on a hillside due to the steady seep gas coming out, it is supposed to have been lit accidentally in the 1950’s and remains still flaming, even after snowy periods.
- Heydar Aliyev Center: Probably our favorite place in Baku, this ultra-modern building complex houses a conference hall, museum and galleries, and is noted for its distinctive architecture and flowing, curved style. It was designed by iraqui-british architect Zaha Hadid and was completed in 2012.
Once the tour finished, we stayed at the Heydar Aliyev Center for a while taking pictures, and then headed back to the hostel.
Day 3
We started by visiting the Heydar Mosque, located about one hour by bus from the Old Town. This mosque, also quite new, is impressive by the size, and both interior and exterior design. It was closed, but we managed to express our interest to visit inside, and without understanding English, one of the employees working there provided us with proper clothing (mainly a scarf for Flor to cover her hair) and allowed us to enter. We really liked it.
After that, we checked the Alley of Martyrs, and the views or the Flame Towers from there, and then returned to the old town for a bit more of wandering around before taking the Train to Tbilisi, Georgia.
Click here to read about our visit to Tbilisi. To read about the train, click here!
Have you ever been to Baku? Would you like to go? Let us know!