Tag: Azerbaijan

Goodbye Azerbaijan, hello Georgia

On By cockneykiwi152 Comments

Azerbaijan & Georgia

April 2025

I was woken early by the Muslim call to prayer and to a misty morning. As I had now discovered the importance of the buildings just across the road from the hotel, I headed out for a quick walk and in search of coffee.

There are two caravanserais on the main road in old Sheki, the upper and the lower which both date back to the 18th-19th centuries.  They were built as fortified structures with just one gate, so they can be protected more easily. 

The Upper one is a tourist site, of course it was closed at 7.30am but I did manage to sneak in a small door (inset in to the big door) to have a quick look at the first courtyard.  As in time gone by, there are a lot of shops along the the outside and we had walked along them the night before.  Today they are mostly souvenirs and also some Halva shops, making a traditional local Halva (a sweet made from sesame paste and honey).

 

The Lower caravanserai is a hotel today, but more importantly for me (that sounds like a terrible thing to say 🤓), there was a lovely coffee shop just across the road … and it was open!  I enjoyed a coffee and watched the local Ladas go by – they definitely rule supreme in this part of the country and I love it.

As we headed towards the border, we passed yet another Albania church on a hill side – I should note that the Albanian churches I see on this trip are not related to the Albania of today, but of the ancient Caucasus Albania which sat in the south eastern part of the Greater Caucasus mountains (most of which sits in modern day Azerbaijan.  The mountain landscapes were filled with wild braided rivers, shepherds grazing their sheep and as we neared the border, trucks, lots of trucks.

We said our goodbyes to Rugiya (our Azerbaijani guide) and our driver and walked to the border crossing.  It took around 45 minutes to depart Azerbaijan (only because we got caught behind a tour bus) and then walked the short distance across no mans land and into Georgia.  The Immigration guy was so excited to see a New Zealand passport – his exact comment was “I did not expect this today” lol.

 

We found our Georgian guide, Tazo and hit the road on the next leg of our Caucasus’s tour. Let’s be clear, we are talking about Georgia the country, and NOT the state in American as many first assume!

The currency here is the Georgian Lari (GEL), NZ$1 = GEL1.6.

First, I little context. Georgia spans Eastern Europe and West Asia, bordering Russian, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan.  It is a small country (only 69,000 km2 – compared to New Zealand’s 263,000 km2) with a population of around 3.7 million, 2 million of which live in the capital, Tbilisi.

As with most countries in this region, its history is complex and somewhat turbulent and even today, the geopolitics of the region continues to cause issues.  After adopting Christianity in the 4th centre, the Kingdom of Georgia remained strong until the 15th century when they succeeded to the Mongols, the Ottoman empire and Persia, before becoming part of the Russian Empire in 1801. 

After the fall of the Russian Empire, they had a couple of years as an independent republic before, once again, being invaded by the Red Army and becoming part of the USSR until 1991.  It was not until 2003 that they gained political stability and aligning themselves with the EU.   I will touch further on parts of this as we travel around and learn more.

The weather was less than ideal, but it was better than the forecast for the following day, so Tazo recommended that we visit the hilltop town of Sighnaghi today rather than tomorrow. A small town in the Kakheti region, Sighnaghi was built in the 18th century as a fortress but today it is referred to as Georgia’s “City of Love” (though I am not sure I know why)!

We drove up into the cloud to the town and we did have to imagine the charm of the town, and of course the view – which apparently is beautiful and our imagination continued as we wandered down through the cobble stone streets to our lunch stop.    

In just a few short hours, we were already impressed with Tazo and he ordered a great array of delicious Georgian food for our first meal.  It seems that walnuts, cheese and bread play an important part of Georgian meals and this meal incorporated all of the above – eggplant stuffed with walnut paste, khachapuri (a few different varieties but the basic one is bread with cheese), tomato salad, BBQ pork and Khinkali (broth and meat filled dumplings). 

All were delicious and I washed it down with my first glass of Georgian wine.   (I will warn you now, food photography is not my thing – most of time we would be half way through eating before we remembered to take the photos 😂.)

In just a few short hours we had already learnt some important information about Georgia and her people:

  • Georgian’s like food with flavour, and “food without salt is not food” lol.
  • Georgia is the home of wine making (more about that another day) and it is important for Georgian people.  Without wine, nothing happens and almost everyone makes their own.
  • Georgia’s main exports are copper and other minerals/ore.
  • The Georgian alphabet is unique and in fact, there are 3 versions of it.  One is widely used, the other two are predominately for religious texts and inscriptions. 
  • I was the first Kiwi guest that Tazo had had

The cloud lifted briefly to allow a quick and hazy view of the valley below, with the green pastures and fish farms (which seem a little random to me in the middle of fields lol).  Apparently there are also lots of minerals in the soil here which are great for grapes. 

While Tazo ran back up the hill to get the car, we took a short walk along part of the 4 km defensive wall to a watch tower flying a very tatty Georgian flag in one of the 28 watch towers along its length.  Again, we had to use our imagination on the view!

 

I have to admit, I was in a bit of a food coma on the next part of the drive but we had lots of good chat with Tazo on the journey to Telavi, the main administrative centre of the Kakheti region and our stop for the night. 

Dinner was not required but we bit have a snack and some homemade Green wine (they use the grape skins during fermentation) to finish of the day. 

But, before I finish this blog, I thought I would touch on the country’s name of Georgia and the infamous St George.  Georgians actually call the country Sakartvelo, and although it is not entirely clear where the English name of Georgia came from, there are a number of theories mostly based around St George.

St George, an early Christian martyr, was born in Cappadocia in the second half of the 3rd century. He is the patron saint of the country (and many others), a large number of churches in the country are built in his name, George (or Giorgi) is one of the most common male names and the country’s flag features his red cross on a white background!  What more do you need to convince you of is importance to the country and its people and perhaps the English name.

When he started fighting dragons, and became the patron saint of England is another story entirely lol.

 

North west to Sheki

On By cockneykiwi153 Comments

Azerbaijan

April 2025

It certainly seems that things do not start early in this part of the world, so I always have time to do a little writing in the morning.  This morning’s pick up was 9.30am and this morning we left with our bags as we were leaving Baku behind and heading west.

Not sure if I have previously mentioned some of Azerbaijan’s more recent history.  The country gained independence from the Russian Empire in 1918, but it was short lived as the Red Army invaded in 1920 declaring Azerbaijan as part of the USSR.  The country finally regained independence again in 1991 (after the collapse of the USSR in 1989) and the first president of independent Azerbaijan was Heydar Aliyev.  As we headed out of the city, we not only passed many more photos of fallen soliders, we also saw many large billboards of Heydar Aliyev.

Ilham Aliyev, Heydar’s son, took power in 2003 and has been President ever since. In this time he has increased the president term from 5 to 7 years, and removed the limit of times he can be reelected. So far, he has been President for 22 years and his wife is actually vice-president! Take from that what you will.

We did not see much in Baku that was a reminder of the Soviet times, but did see some old tower blocks as we drove out of the city.  Not only did the architecture change, but so did the landscape, and the further we got away from the coast, towards the Caucasus mountains, the more green the landscape became.

The long drive today gave me time to make some more observations about driving here.  Smoking and using phones whilst driving seem to be a national pastime – thankfully our driver did not smoke in the car but close enough to make it smell pretty bad.  Driving inside one lane and the use of seat belts appear optional (I think I have mentioned the lane driving part before!). The driver would put on his belt when passing police stations then take it off again.

The roads were actually way better than expected, except for a section were we travelled on a new road which was not finished yet.  Apparently, the new route cut over an hour off the trip and for some reason meant the driver had to go even faster.  In this case we were actually told this. At some points I had to close my eyes with some of the manoeuvres that the driver was doing.   I was thankful to arrive at our destination in one piece!

We were driving on the North West route, and the further we got out of the city the higher we climbed and the greener everything became.  Another observation was that the further we drove, the number of high end cars dwindled, and the number of Soviet era Ladas increased – (I love those things 😂).

We had a toilet stop at a roadside supermarket.  The supermarket was lovely, full of fresh produce, bu the toilet was smelly and squat so we did not bother with those!  Instead I decided to sample one of the popular Tarragon Lemonade drinks which seem to be very popular.  It tasted a little more like aniseed to me but it was ok, I definitely prefer the pear version.

We started passing people selling fruit and vegetables on the roadside out of the back of their Ladas.  I wish I could have taken photos but at the speed we were going there was not much chance.  We did manage to stop at one to purchase a dried fruit thing, so at least there is one photo!  There were lots of Strawberries on offer, which looked lovely (from a distance) but apparently grown in greenhouses.

There are often times on my travel where landscapes are so like New Zealand, I could be at home and this was one of them.  The rolling green hills were so familiar and at one point we were stuck behind a truck full of sheep, making me feel right at home. The small quiet towns and cows grazing on the roadsides was like a different country to Baku.

We stopped for lunch at Nohur Lake, a beautiful lake surrounded by forest in the Greater Caucasus mountains.  I was surprised to learn, it is actually a manmade lake, to supply water to the local area, and is now a popular place for locals to visit.  It was a beautiful location, but not suprisingly, the restaurant on the lake was very expensive. I picked the cheapest thing on the menu, a chicken kebab for AZN16, every else was over 40!  I would rarely pay that for a causal lunch at home!

We stopped in the small town of Nij to visit Jotaari Church.  Initially an Armenian church, built in the 1820’s, it is now used by the Albanian-Udi population.  The Udi people were the native people of the Caucasus area and converted to Christianity in the 4th century.  There are only 10,000 Udi people today and around 4,000 live in this small village and still speak their own language.  Their Orthodox Christian church is open to the public, but as with many churches, no photos are allowed inside. 

In the church grounds there are a number of large Hazelnut trees, Hazelnuts being one of the main crops for the area.  We had a cute little wildlife encounter with a cute little squirrel foraging around under the trees which was an opportunity to bring out the camera – these days most of my photos are taken on my phone.

Now in the countryside, Ladas are definitely more prevelant and are often loaded down with stuff – sometimes it appears to be everything except the kitchen sink or perhaps including it!  Actually horse power also seems to work fine in this part of the country with people riding horses down the road, along with horses pulling carts. 

We had passed many police checks but were not stopped until we were just entering Sheki, our destination for the day.  Not really sure what they were checking but it seems very common. 

Sheki (also known as Shaki or Şeki) sits in the shadow of the snow capped Caucasus mountains, in the north west of Azerbaijan, was once a stop on the Silk Road, connecting east and west. 

Our first stop was the small nearby village of Kish and the Church of Saint Elishe, what was a Georgian Orthodox Church dating back to the 12th century. It subsequently became a Caucasus Albanian church.  The Sheki region was once one of the biggest Caucasian Albanian states in the region. 

To get to the church, we abandoned our car and jumped into a bright blue Lada driven by a lovely lady.  We zipped up the narrow cobbled streets with Azerbaijani music pumping – I loved it!  When we got to the top she kindly offered us samples of her homemade pomegranate wine and cognac from her shop before we went in to visit the church.  It was a beautiful spot and very peaceful.

Back down in Sheki old town, we visited the Khan’s Palace.  After it’s Caucasus Albanian era, the town became the capital for the powerful Sheki Khanate.

The palace was built at the end of the 18th century by master craftsmen (many from Iran) and there are intricate designs and details both inside and out.  Unfortunately, we could not take photos inside so you will have to believe me when I tell you of the wonders of the detail inside.  (I should note we were constantly watched by guards to ensure we did not take photos 😄.)

Each of the rooms are beautifully painted with murals including pomegrantes (the tree of life), Iris’s (apparently bacteria can’t survive in a room if it has Iris’s in it, or silk for that matter, one of the reasons they often had silk wall hangings).  Images of battles filled the throne room along with images that indicated the kind king that he was e.g. dragons breathing flowers rather than fire and goats playing with wolves.

 

One of the key features of the palace are some of the best examples of ‘shebeke’, the Azerbaijani stained-glass windows that are made without the use of glue or nails.  It was initially made with very fine glass imported from Venice, but today the glass is more than 3mm thick. They use small pieces of glass which slot into the wooden frames and some of the panes contain 1,800 pieces of wood and glass and weigh up to 40 kg.

After our palace visit, we went to the Shebeke workshop to see the master at work. He insisted we tried to put one together and then I felt obiliged to buy the one I made 😝 .  No, of course I was not obliged, I wanted it, I just wish I could have afforded a bigger one as they really are so beautiful and such an incredible skill. 

Also on the palace grounds is the Russian Orthodox Nukha Three Saints Church.  Today it seems to be more of a backdrop for dress up photos!

 

Back in town and we were dropped off at our hotel – the adeptly named Sheki Palace.  The photo does not do justice to the enormous room we had here.  We were on the top floor, which seemed a little attic like.  The windows were tiny but what a lovely view across the old town. 

 Sheki was an important stop on the Silk Road and the most obvious reminder of this is the two great caravanserais that dominate this part of the city.  Unfortunately, when dropping us off, Rugiya neglected to tell us the importance of these buildings so when we were wandering around the souvenir shops that occupy the bottom part of the Upper Caravanserai, we had no idea of the importance of the building itself!  And by the time we did realise, it was too late to go inside. I get very lazy when I have a guide and don’t really do much of my own research on places – lesson learnt!

Upon questioning, the driver did recommend a small local restaurant near our hotel, where we finally got to try the local Qutab, a stuffed flatbread. More commonly served for breakfast or as a snack, we tried all three types for dinner – meat, cheese and herbs, along with some dolma and compote (water with fruit) and it was all very tasty and a fitting way to end our last night in Azerbaijan.

 

 

Anicent Azerbaijan

On By cockneykiwi151 Comment

Republic of Azerbaijan

April 2025

Nobody seems to start early here, so our pick up was not scheduled until 9.30am.  As I am still waking up at 5am, it gives me plenty of time to have a relaxed breakfast and do some writing before the day begins, which is not a bad thing.  

We got back in the car (which smells like stale smoke – smoking is very common here) with dark tinted windows (again very common). In fact, yesterday we had asked if we could get a car without the tint as we couldn’t see anything out of the windows when we are driving. They ended up taking the tint off the windows and yet they are still not clear -at least we can now see something!

Our first stop for the day was the historical ethnographic reserve of Qala Village, an open air museum, featuring petroglyphs from the 2nd and 3rd millennia BC to the Middle Ages, remnants of ancient residential complexes (above ground – a Dolmen, and below ground – nomads shelter) and demonstration buildings.  In the house there was a carpet making demonstration and an opportunity to give it a go.  It apparently takes about a year to make a room size carpet using the local method (using a tool like a crochet hook) and I think I can safely say, I will never be a carpet maker.   

 

Outside, under a 300 year old pistachio tree, there was a potter, demonstrating the use of the traditional potting well with the local clay and in the kitchen we were shown the art of baking lavash (an unleavened flatbread).  The wedding house showed the traditional décor for the wedding night and finally the farm with camels, sheep and donkeys.  They used the camels for wool and meat, but not milk.

From the village, we headed over to the Fortress which dates back to between 10-14th century and includes a tower (for surveillance and defence) and a strong hold.  Apparently, the foundations and tunnels are oringal and we were told that the tunnels go all the way to Baku but are not used today because there are too many snakes in there!

 

In another building in the same complex there was a random “Trash Museum”.  As the name notes, it is a museum of displays made out of trash.  Some were actually really good.  My favourites being an octopus made from pencil shavings and a human figure made from typewriter keys.

Our next stop was the Temple of Ateshgah, also know as the “Fire Temple of Baku”.  Although there has been a temple on this sight since the 10th century, the current temple was built in the 17th and 18th century.  The temple was used as a Hindu, Sikh and Zoroastrian place of worship the complex consists of a courtyard surrounded by cells for monks and pilgrims to stay with their animals. In the centre is an altar with an eternal flame.  Fire is an important symbol in the Zoroastrian religion, representing the light of God and purity.

The temple was abandoned as a place of worship in the late 19th century and apparently the natural flame went out in 1969 so it is now lit by gas, piped from the city nearby.

It was interesting to see the back streets, small shops and people going about their day to day business as we drove to our next stop.  In all the small towns, there are large posters of local men (mostly very young) who died in the 2020 war with Armenia.  Many of them would have been doing their 12-18 months of military service and are now considered martyrs.

We  also passed soooooooo many oil pumps on the side of the road.  Did you know that at the beginning of the 20th century, Azerbaijan was the world’s leading petroleum provider, producing 11.4 million tons of oil in 1901, more than half of the world’s production at the time.  Since that time, Azerbaijan’s place in the oil industry has declined, as other countries have increased and it is now about the 19th biggest producer of oil.  That said, oil & gas still make up 95% of the country’s exports. 

Apparently, all oil belongs to the Government.  Even if you find it in your garden the Government take it and maybe your garden and your house as well.  You will get some compensation though!🤨

As if just to show off, our next stop was Yanar Dag, the “burning mountain”, a natural gas fire that blazes continuously.  Apparently it has been burning for thousands of years and it alledgedly was started by a lightning strike in the 7th century. Of course, it is a symbol of the country’s natural wealth but also considered by some to have healing powers. 

It is decreasing every year so it is possible that it will stop burning at some point.  It was no Darvaza Gas Crater in Turkmenistan, but still interesting and of course it has been burning for much longer.

To get to our next stop, we had to drive right back through the centre of the city and back into the terrible traffic and out the other side but it gave us an opportunity to stop for lunch.  We had said that we wanted to have local food, and after an initial problem finding the place, and then working through what is local food on the vast menu (found by using QR codes on your phone) we had dolma (meat wrapped in vine leaves), Dusbere (a soup with little dumplings – in fact the smaller the dumplings the better, you should be able to fit 10 in one spoon), lamb kebab and a delicious Pear Lemonade.

Our post lunch drive took us out of the city along the coastline and through the incredible barren landscape (it is hard to picture that Baku used to look like this).  We passed industrial areas including ship building and metal, glass and cement manufacturing.  We also passed the abandoned building site of what was going to be Baku’s answer to the Dubai palms.  Unfortunately the pandemic brought the construction to halt and it has never restarted. 

Our first desintation for the after was Gobustan, another UNESCO site, where a rocky plateau is home to a staggering 6,000 rock engravings, spanning over 40,000 years of human inhabitation.  They were found in the 1930’s.

The landscape has changed over time.  At one time the sea once covered the landscape and other times the area was rich with flora and fauna.  The petroglyphs show life through out these years including images of boats (looking a little Viking like), hunting, animals, people, rituals etc.

They were amazing, but unfortunately we only had a short time to spend in the great museum before we were back in the car driving further through the barren landscape (at 110 kph in a 60 zone 😬) to our final spot of the day, the Gobustan mud volcanos. I don’t think I had ever heard of mud volcanos.  We have boiling mud from geothermic activity in New Zealand but these are completely different and Azerbaijan have the most of any country with over 350.

Mud volcanoes happen when pressurised mud, fluids, and gases erupt through the Earth’s surface and they normally happen where there are fault lines or, as in this case, a build up of gas and fluids under pressure.  

Again, there was another great museum that we did not have time to look around properly before heading out to see the ‘volcanos’.   I was surprised to learn that they are not necessarily hot and the bubbles are created by the methane gas.  The landscape was amazing and they were so cool to see.

 

It was an incredible afternoon and it was already 6.30 before we started back to the city, over an hour’s drive away (we were supposed to be back at the hotel by 6pm). But, we ran out of petrol!  Our Driver had to get a taxi to the petrol station for petrol 😂 .  Thankfully there was one not too far away and it did not take him too long before he was back and he and the taxi driver put the petrol into the tank while enjoying a cigarette 🙄.

So, 30 minutes later, even with fuel, the car would not start – apparently he did not buy enough. Perhaps now is a good time to note just how cheap petrol is here – approximately $1.10 per litre to the $2.50 per litre in New Zealand!  The driver had headed off again to get more petrol, this time returning in a taxi driving down the side of the road (on the wrong side of the road) 😂 we had to laugh, if we didn’t we might cry.  Second time lucky and the car started and we finally reached our Baku hotel around 8.30pm!  Another great day with another fun transport adventure.

 

 

Welcome to Baku

On By cockneykiwi151 Comment

Republic of Azerbaijan

April 2025

Currency – Azerbaijani Manat

NZ$1 – 0.99 Manat

Welcome to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan – the Land of Fire.

Firstly, settle in for a little background. Azerbaijan is a country in the South Caucasus area of Eurasia, bordering on Russia, Georgia, Armenian, and Iran.  Its capital, Baku sits on the shore of the Caspian Sea (which I think I have mentioned in a previous blog, is technically a lake).

Like Turkey, it straddles Asia and Europe and Baku really shows this blend of cultures, looking like the love child of Dubai and Vienna with wide European style boulevards, flanked by very European style buildings; towering, hypermodern, geometric glass buildings and historic Silk Road caravanserais.

The country has a population of approximate 10 million, 4 million of those living in the capital of Baku.  90% of the population are ethnic Azerbaijanis and most are Muslim (although it does not appear to be practiced strictly).

The country has an incredibly complex history and I am not sure I will even be able to scratch the surface in the short time I have in the country, but as always I will do my best to get in to it , and bring you along for the ride.

I had a pretty good nights sleep and enjoyed a decent breakfast at the hotel – an interesting range of cheeses, vegetables, cake, and a few things I didn’t know what they were 🤨. After breakfast, I meet up with my friend Ania, who had arrived from Dublin the night before, and we met up with our local guide, Rugiya, who would be with us for our time in Azerbaijan.

As we navigated the traffic of the city (yes, I can confirm traffic is bad!), Rugiya gave us a little background of the country and city (which I will try to explain over the next couple of blogs). 

Our first stop for the day was at Highland Park, the highest point of Baku, giving a panaromica view across the across the city and the Caspian Sea.  The beautiful, peaceful park also houses a number of memorials to fallen soliders.  

The soil in the area is very salty and it’s impossible to grow anything (we will see more proof of this when we travel out of the city).  When wanting to beautify the city with green areas, soil had to be brought from other parts of the country. 

It is probably at this point I should mention Baku’s most iconic buildings – the Flame Towers, 3 flame shaped towers (the tallest being 182m tall) completed in 2012.  The flame shape symbolises the “Land of Fire” – from natural gas that comes up from the ground around the country, and the Zoroastrian religion that considers flames to be a symbol of the divine.  The buildings house apartments, a hotel and offices and dominate the city skyline by day, and by night (we will see more on that later in the day).  

From the view point in the park, we could see down the coast, from the 2nd highest flag pole (it was the first until the one in Tajikistan was erected); the Cyrstal Hall, built for the Eurovision contest in 2012; the “Baku Eye”; and the Sydney Opera House like, Deniz Mall. We could also see down to the new Crescent building (that I had seen the day before). When open, it is apparently going to be a 7 star hotel.

From the park, we headed down to the the UNESCO World Heritage Old City, which is still surrounded by the reconstructed, 12th century fortified walls, passing through the double gates, featuring the coats of arms of the ancient city of Baku. There are various versions of its meaning. It features a Bull’s head (believed to be linked to cattle breeding, replacing growing crops which was impossible in the salty soil) and therefore a symbol of the ancient city.  There are also two lions, probably as a link to the city’s orient culture, or a symbol of the Safavids, who took the city from the Zoroastrian’s.   

It is widely believed that old city construction started in the 12th century, with various buildings ranging up until the 16th century. But buildings such as the Bukhara Caravanserai are believed to date back as far as the 8th century, when the location grew in importance due to it stragetic location on the Silk Road and the shores of the Caspian Sea. 

Many of the old buildings have been carefully restored and reconstructed (following the strict UNESCO rules to maintain authenticity) and the area is so clean … and full of very friendly and well looked after stray cats.  Unfortunately both the large Caravanserai’s were closed for recontruction.  (If you have read some of my Central Asia blogs, you may remember that a Caravanserai was an inn that provided lodging for Silk Road travelers, merchants and caravans of camels). It was interesting to learn that the door of the Caravanserai has two knockers, a large one for men and a small one for women.  This way the people inside knew who were outside and who should open the door (remember most were Muslim and therefore men and women did not mix.)

It was clear from many of the items in the souvenir shops, that Pomegrantes are important to Azerbaijani culture and tradition.  They are not only the national fruit, but they symbolise abundance, blessing and fertility.  We will go on to see them depicted in decoration of buildings, as well as being used in many local dishes and wine.

We climbed the 12th century Maiden Tower (Gyz Galasi in Azerbaijani), one of the icon symbols of the city.  It is 28m tall, but oddly, because the Caspium Sea is actually 28m below sea level, when standing on the top of the tower, you are at sea level.  When built, it was on a rocky ledge that jutted out in to the sea, but today it sits 200m from the waters edge.   I should probably note there is some dispute about when it was actually built – with views ranging from as early as the 5th century,  through to the 12th (and in some schools of thought, a combination of those).

The eight levels, reached by winding staircases, are now filled with information about the old city and the tower itself and from the top there are panoramic views over the city (though sadly today there is a perspex barrier between you and the view).  The walls are made of thick brick and it even has its own well.

As the year of construction is debated, so is the tower’s purpose.  Too small for it to be defensive, too many windows for warfare.  Perhaps a Zoroastrian temple and definitely a beacon for ships in the 18th and 19th century.  Or perhaps we will just stick with the legend of the king who was forcing his daughter to marry a man she did not love.  She asked her father to first build a tower for her, which she then committed sucide from, by jumping from the top of it!  Perhaps we will never know.

An oddity of the city is the Miniature Book Museum.  Apparently the only one in the world and hold a Guinness Book of World Records for the largest private collection of miniature books. 

The next stop on our whirlwind tour of the city is the Palace of Shirvanshahs.  Unfortunately the fast pace meant we did not have much time in the museum which was a shame.  We definitely would have liked longer, but such is our itinerary, time is not always on our side.

The Palace is thought to have been built in the 15th century and is descibed by UNESCO as “one of the pearls of Azerbaijan’s architecture”.  The complex consisted of the main palace building, the shah’s mosque, Seyid Yahya Bakuvi’s mausoleum and the remnants of a bath house.  Not forgetting the great view across to the Flame Towers, highlighting the cities complex relationship between the passed and the future,

Before we entered the Palace, we took pause in front of some bullet pock marks on the side of the building. A reminder of the 1918 Azerbaijani genocide, where it is said, Aremnian Dashnaks, supported by the Russian Bolshevik leader Lenin, started a mass extermination of Azerbaijanis.  During 3 days, they attacked and killed all Azerbaijanis they encounter and approximately 2 million people were killed.  The site we saw at the castle mentions a number of 12,000 but that was probably only in the old city.  I guess a little understanding of this history helps put the ongoing troubles on the border in perspective.  It will be interested to understand the other perspective of the conflict when we get to Armenia in a couple of weeks time. 

A couple of points of interest that I noted as we rushed through the museum was that women’s belts were an indication of age – the bigger the belt, the older the woman.  And second was the changes in the language over the years … the spoken language has remained the same, but the written language has changed from Arabic to Cryillic to Latin over the course of the centuries. 

 

We spent a few minutes around the Carpet Museum on the Seaside Boulevard, another of Baku’s iconic buildings – this time shaped as a rolled up carpet.  Carpet weaving was listed by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Hertiage of Humanity.  We did not have tickets (or time) to go in, but we would see some carpets in our next destination, yet another icon landmark of the city – the Heydar Aliyev Center.

The Heydar Aliyev Centre was as unique on the inside as it is on the outside and housed an interesting range of international temporary exhibitions and permanent local ones on traditional clothing, musical instruments, dolls and carpets – some of the most beautiful carpets I have ever seen.  An finally an exhibition about Azerbaijan’s model of tolerance – excepting all people, race and regilion.

 After a short break back at the hotel, Ania and I headed out for an evening stroll along the boulevard.  The cold wind we had coped with throughout the day had died down, and it was a beautiful evening for a walk.  The Baku Boulevard was initially established in 1909, running parallel to the cities seafront and is over 5km in length.  Depisted being a Friday evening it was fairly quiet and peaceful.

The main reason for the walk was to see the buildings lit up, in particular the Flame towers and we were so excited when they came on, with images ranging from the flag, flames and people waving flags.

Even at almost 8pm in the evening, the traffic was insane, and there were very few places to safely cross the busy multi lane road (it seems driving in lanes is optional so there may be 4 lanes, or maybe there are 6 🤨 – who knows).  After backtracking a little, we finally made it across and headed up in to the old city to found our way to a random restaurant with local food and live traditional music.  Communication was a bit of a challenge but we ended up with pilaf (rice) with lamb and a cherry/pomegranate purée and a random drink made from Feijoa, local beer and tea.  It was not attractive or particularly cheap (around NZ$25), but it was tasty. 

We decided to be smart and use a bolt taxi to get back to our hotel (like uber) so we could just put in the destination into the app and not have to speak – epic fail!  The taxi did not show up, but the app said it was at the pick up point and then the driver starting calling but he did not speak English.   Not knowing where the driver was, and not being able to communicate, we had to cancel (but be still charged) and ended up getting a normal taxi at x3 the price with a driver who told us in broken English that all Bolt drivers are drunk or on drugs!   We were probably ripped off, but at least we made and it back and that would enough adventure for one day.  😝

 

On my way – Caucasus edition

On By cockneykiwi152 Comments

April 2025

Travel day is always exciting, but I could not get too excited until I finished work for the day. Luckily, I had put my out of office response on my emails the day before so I just had to tidy up loose ends and it was not too stressful. That said, I really need a holiday! 

The hype for this holiday was great.  I loved telling people I was going to the Caucasus and see their blank face, as most people don’t know where it is. Even when I named the countries, some were still none the wiser. I love going to unique places!

Today I was flying on the Emirates A380, straight from Christchurch, It’s a great route and a good plane, but I will miss the luxury of the lounge and perks I get with Star Alliance flights. Thankfully, I didn’t have any long stopovers scheduled so I knew I would survive.  (I didn’t know it then, but this would come back and bite me later in the journey.)

It’s been a few years  since I have had to pass time in the tiny Christchurch International area – 4 shops and 2 eating places lol.  Still, there lots of places to sit, and I managed to occupy myself for the almost 3 hours by moving around the seating areas, reading my book and having a sneaky glass of bubbly.

My first flight for the day was just under 3 hours, from Christchurch to Sydney. I did have a window seat but it was over the wing so not such a good view, but could still enjoy the beautiful sunset over the mountains as we took off.

After a couple of hours on the ground, I boarded my second flight, almost 15 hours to Dubai. Thankfully I managed to get some sleep to pass the time, and chatted with my seat companions – a couple who were on their way to a wedding at Antelope Aark in Zimbabwe, where I used to live! A lovely small world moment.

This is where my 2 hour layover bit me!  In Dubai, I had been told, I had to catch a bus for 20 minutes to the next gate for my FlyDubai flight (Emirates budget airline).  So we left behind the flashy Dubai airport as this side was more like a bus stop than an airport. The bus actually took closer to 30 minutes and by the time we arrived, my flight boarding had begun, and the mayhem started as soon as I got off the bus.

We had more security, with a long queue and lots of people pushing and shovelling …. so I joined the pushing and shovelling to get to the front so I could get to my gate.  No time for the toilet or to fill my water bottle and oh, the cruelty of seeing a Starbucks but had no time to get a coffee.  

To add to the connection stress, I was trying to confirm a pick up time for a night tour I had booked. The first message I received told me that pick up time was 2pm at the Old City gate … ummm but my tour starts at 6.30 and has a hotel pick … ok, they reply, we will pick you up at your hotel at 8.30!

Again, but my tour starts at 6.30 – and finally they said, we have changed the time because of the traffic!  Is traffic is always bad at that time?  If so, why sell a tour to start at that time, or were they randomly predicting it will be bad? A gentle reminder not to try and find logic as sometimes there just is none!

Sadly I had to cancel it as it was something to help me kill time before I could go to bed – the chance of me staying awake that late was very small, and I have 2 more nights in Baku so will hopefully be able to do it another night.

After all that stress, I was on my my final flight that took me from Dubai to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, sitting on the shores of the Caspian Sea.  I was on the wrong side of the plane to see the sites of Dubai but got great views of the barren Middle Eastern landscapes and on to snow capped mountains.

Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku was modern and clean, and within 10 minutes of landing I was through immigration, waiting for my bag.   (For Azerbaijan, I needed to get an evisa in advance so entry was easy with that in hand.) I changed a little money (to Azerbaijani Manat) while I waited for my bag, and 35 minutes after deplaning, I had my bag, found my driver for my pick up and was on my way to my hotel.

Initial views of the city were a mismatch of buildings ranging from Soviet style to hyper modern and wide European boulevard type streets.  I am sure I will learn more in the coming days.

The hotel is nice, and after dropping my bag, I went for a walk to explore the area. Just down the road I came across a serious high end shopping mall, but thought it best to cross the street and go in to the more normal looking mall (with shops like Zara and Mango).   It was cold, with a howling wind (I did not know that Baku is sometimes known as the windy city!) so I was grateful to be inside.

 

Was it wrong that my first meal in Azerbaijan was McDonald’s?   Probably, BUT, I navigated the order in Azerbaijani and … it came with an incredible view that I may not have seen if i did not go there. So I think that balances out.

 More to come soon …

 

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