We landed at the Baku airport around 7:30pm local time on Azerbaijan Airlines. We were 30 minutes or so late due to a delay leaving CDG, but the 5h50 flight was pleasant enough with a hot meal served. The sun set just prior to our taxi ride into town which allowed us to enjoy the light show provided by the many high-rise buildings that lined the broad road, the hi-tech display reminiscent of a recent overnight in Doha. In the distance, I finally caught sight of those “flame towers” that so caught my eye in the photograph of Baku that led me to plan this trip. [An overview of this 12-night Caucasus trip is in my previous post.]
Turning off the modern thoroughfare, our driver stopped at a guard post where a boom was raised to allow us into Icheri Sheher (“Old City”), a different world of winding cobbled streets, wooden balconies and stone buildings. Removed from lighted high-rises, Seven Rooms Boutique Hotel nestles into the heart of ancient Baku. This pretty hotel in a great location offered us a comfortable 3rd floor room with a huge bed and marble bathroom and an included breakfast in a glass-walled upstairs space adjoining a rooftop terrace with spectacular views of the city and the Caspian Sea.
With no time to explore our first night, we were up and off after breakfast the next morning. A two-minute walk from our hotel past street-level stone domes of ancient underground baths, we arrived at the 12th century “Maiden Tower,” a UNESCO Heritage Monument. [left, in the lead photo above] The Maiden Tower may have been originally built by Zoroastrian fire worshipers, early founders of Baku who were drawn to the region by its seeping natural gas that fuels both human- and nature-originating fires. Later modifications incorporated the tower into medieval defensive walls. The tower has eight interior stories that now house historic displays. A central hole, open to the bottom floor, runs through them all. A rooftop deck offers great views of Baku and the Caspian Sea. The maiden tower is an iconic emblem of the city and the country, featured on Azerbaijan currency and (so I read) official letterheads.
From the maiden tower, we walked cobbled streets to the Juma Mosque, a beautifully restored and active mosque dating to the 1300’s and possibly built originally on the site of an ancient fire temple. Only five minutes or so from the Juma Mosque, the Palace of the Shirvanshahs, a 15th century UNESCO Heritage monument, commands the old town. The Shirvanshahs ruled Shirvan (part of present-day Azerbaijan that includes Baku) from 861 to 1538 making them one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the Islamic world. A 15th century Shirvanshah moved his capital to Baku and began construction on the original palace. On a gorgeous Saturday, the palace was popular with groups of school children on field trips whom we dodged to explore the palace on our own. The former residential second floor is closed to the public, but there are a maze of rooms with historic displays to see on the ground floor and the palace grounds contain the Shirvanshah’s mosque and mausoleum, burial vaults and remnants of a bath house.
We got our first real taste of Azerbaijani cuisine at a late lunch near the palace, sitting outside at café Xanliq while a truly talented musician played music on a local string instrument and big samovars puffed steam into the air. We enjoyed chicken and chestnuts in a rich, tangy pomegranate sauce, beef chunks cooked with dried apricots, chestnuts and chickpeas, rice pilaf, sparkling water and a shared baklava dessert. Delicious. And all that for 35.64 dram or about $21. If only we could bring these prices back home to Paris!
Refreshed and refueled, we continued our ramble through the old town, periodically turning down a cobbled street to be greeted by the strange juxtaposition of the ultra-modern flame towers appearing in the distance beyond the maze-like Islamic medina of Icheri Sheher.
We exited through a beautiful gate in the crenelated walls to check out the large and very modern glass geometric shape that is the Icheri Sheher métro station. It’s a striking structure with a large covered entrance designed to look like an Azerbaijani carpet. We ducked in to check out the interior and a free photography exhibit on display, but were not ready to actually ride the subway anywhere. Major sights still awaited us within walking distance.
the métro station with the walls of the Old City through the windows;
and, an elegant pedestrian underpass beneath Neftchilar Avenue
The Caspian Sea waterfront promenades of Baku with long wide parks and ultra modern buildings on either end impressed me. Modern Baku is the product of vast petroleum wealth. Architectural works of art, high-end cars on the boulevards, majestic Soviet-era metro and underground pedestrian tunnels for crossing those wide roads. There’s a nouveau riche, over-the-top aspect to much of it, but there’s also an undeniable grandeur. It’s an immaculately clean city, too, and its cafes, parks and shopping areas bustle with life.
The massive Deniz Mall with its wings reminiscent of the Sydney Opera House dominates the southern end of the Baku National Seaside Park. Nearby near the canals of “Mini Venice,” a long building shaped like a rolled up rug houses the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum. Strolling the length of the waterfront, there’s a yacht club, fountains, music playing from speakers, a viewing tower, historic photographs lining a walkway, benches flowers, eateries and shopping. With the sunning shining and a mildly cool May, we found it all delightful.
Other parts of the city just outside the walls of Icheri Sheher boast wide paved plazas and avenues, streets lined with cafés and restaurants, shopping malls, hotels, a vibrant mix of commercial activity. Architecture reflects both Middle Eastern and European influences. High-end shops bearing the names of familiar luxury designers and some not so familiar to us give testament to the petroleum riches that have poured into Azerbaijan.
Baku so exceeded my expectations that I wish we’d had that extra day we lost due to a canceled flight just to wander the city some more. But we had plans for a day outside the city. My next post takes us beyond Baku to mud volcanoes, an ancient cave settlement with prehistoric drawings, a naturally burning hillside and a Zorastrian fire temple.
Practical stuff:
The local language is Azerbaijani/Azeri and Russian is a common second language, but we found enough people who spoke enough English to never have any problems. Google Translate was a big help (although it can’t do audible Azeri) and T-Mobile kept us connected. We felt very comfortable and safe exploring the city on our own. Every city has its sketchy parts of town and I’m sure Baku has its, but we were never anywhere far from the main sights so saw nothing remotely concerning.
I booked Seven Rooms Boutique Hotel on Booking.com via the Topcashback portal which was offering 6% cash back at Booking.com at the time.
We enjoyed our meals in Baku. Best Place Restaurant & Music Bar is just steps from Seven Rooms Boutique Hotel. While there was live jazz going on downstairs, we opted for a quiet dinner in a surprisingly elegant dining room upstairs where music by Frank Sinatra and other greats of that era played from a mock gramophone. For our final night, we dined on traditional Azerbaijani food on the second-floor terrace of the Museum Inn Terrace & Restaurant with a beautiful sunset view of the nearby Maiden Tower and the Caspian Sea beyond.
Our Azerbaijan Airlines flight from Paris to Baku was operated by Heston Airlines. The plane was fine, but a bit older and had no charge ports at the seats. Meal service was a bit odd as the crew kept bringing two meals at a time from the galley. The food was typical economy class fare served with Azerbaijani wine and beer as well as non-alcoholic drinks. We saw no reason to fly business on this flight as it was only 5+ hours long and we did not want to sleep. This turned out to be a good choice as there was very little to distinguish business seats from economy.
We flew Azerbaijan Airlines again from Baku to Tblisi, Georgia. This was an extremely punctual short flight. Shout out to Azerbaijan Airlines for going over and above on this one: David forgot a small backpack in the airport lounge near our departure gate in Baku. Amazingly, Azerbaijan Airlines customer service at Tblisi arranged to have someone in Baku go to the lounge, pick up the backpack and put it on the next flight. Then, someone collected it and put it in Tblisi airport lost-and-found where we were able to pick it up the following day. Bravo!
We ended up not needing to ride the Baku Métro, but we checked out the ticket machines anyway and discovered that despite claims that the machines operate in Azerbaijani, Russian and English, that just isn’t so. There’s some initial English, but then all goes to Azerbaijani/Azeri and is pretty much unusable for us English-speakers.
We saw quite a few Bolt cars in Baku, but we didn’t use them. I initially let our hotel arrange a transfer because we were arriving at night and the hotel is small and in the restricted old town area. (40 dram or about $23.50 for a roughly 40 min. ride) I thought we’d use Bolt to go back the the airport, but after reading online of some problems with Bolt driver scams in Baku, I opted to again have the hotel call a ride and I paid them directly. It probably would have been cheaper with Bolt, but this way, I was sure of the ride and the price.
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