Baku? Baku!
When I traveled to Baku with my dad, most of the responses were “Where?” “what?” “Is this a third world state?” So it’s not. 3 hours from Tel Aviv and adjacent to the Caspian Sea is Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan and is absolutely not a developing world state. Do not confuse with the Stan states in Asia, though they were all part of the former Soviet Union. This is a rich country, full of oil and natural gas and with a ruler of grandiose architecture.
So what to do in Baku? Here is a detailed guide for 4 days including a destination map:
Baku by night
Day One: Taza Market
After landing and driving to the hotel, Father and I took a taxi that cost three manat (Azerbaijani currency) , to Taza Bazaar. This market is probably only known to Israelis, because there are no tourists from any other country. It’s a nice market with loads of pickles and jams, the pride of the Azeri people, which will happily give you a taste. By the way, the Azer dries all kinds of fruits you can imagine, including full-size Japanese Persimmon.
Taze Market
We had lunch at a workers’ restaurant near the market, a cheap shawarma with yogurt. Twenty minutes walk away we arrived at mall 28 mall, a magnificent mall with lots of local visitors who came to hang out and eat. You can read more about Baku’s food and restaurants here.
In the evening we sat on the last floor of the Hilton Hotel, in a 360 degree bar. All chairs there on a rotating conveyor belt to allow all diners to see a panoramic view of the city while sipping beer.
Second day: Hike in the old and new city of Baku
The amount of things we provided on this day can also be done for two days and more comfortable. We began a visit to the Old City, continued to the Flame Towers and Carpet Museum and in the evening visited the Haider Aliyev Cultural Center.
To get to the Old City area, we took a taxi to the Virgin Tower, and walked a little bit into the complex itself. There we got from a local map of the old town with the 20 most important sites listed here.
You can pay for a guided tour ticket that includes admissions to all sites at a cost of one hundred Manat, we preferred to walk by ourselves. It’s easy to identify that you’ve come to the right place: the entire complex is surrounded by a beautiful ancient wall with gates.
the ancient wall
Maiden Tower
The oldest tower in Baku is considered one of the must-see places in the city. From the outside, it will show you just a 30-foot round tower, but its structure inside is fascinating and is considered a unique architectural piece. It is named after the legend of a virgin (or maiden) who jumped to her death following a heartbreak. The cost of entering the tower is 12 Manat and has a lot of beautiful presentations and view of the city.
Shirvanshakh palace
This impressive palace is the highlight of the Old City. The palace itself has a museum with carpets and Azerbaijani art and near it is the palace mosque, an ancient hammam (an arabic bath house) building and a tomb complex with a mausoleum.
Haider Aliyev Cultural Center
This is by far the most beautiful building I have seen in recent years, and one of the most architecturally unique in the world. This building was designed in the signature form of Azerbaijan’s ruler by architect Zoha Hadid and it is all meticulous, accurate and impressive.
In the first part you will see the Aliyev Memorial Museum, which, unlike other museums, is designed in an innovative and interesting way, although Aliyev’s history is quite boring (became a Russian KGB officer).
In addition, there is a mini Azerbaijan display with all of Baku’s famous buildings, a handmade children’s doll display and a colorful fashion display . Don’t give up on the cafe at the end, they have a great cappuccino.
This building was designed in the signature form of Azerbaijan’s ruler
such an impressive building
Baku Carpet Museum
So it turns out that the Persian people did not take ownership of the carpets, and the Azeri people also have a strong attraction to handmade carpets. In this museum that looks like a rolled-up carpet, you can see three floors of antique carpets and learn how to weave such. A tour can greatly enrich the visit here, because without it it is very difficult to understand what the section is about. Then we had a great meal at the museum’s restaurant.
museum that looks like a rolled-up carpet
Third day: Land of Fire, gobustan and temples
We spent the day outside Baku, traveling to three sites around the city with a car and a driver who we asked the hotel to arrange for us. In fact, we got two twenty-year-old local guys: one who actually drove a car and one who knew English.
The first destination we reached is the gobustan reserve, after an hour driving south of Baku. By the way, please note that entry to the site only starts at ten so there is nothing to hurry in the morning on the exit from Baku.
Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape Reserve
In the reserve you can see closely the ancient petroglyphs, murals in the caves of the ancient man dating to at least fifty thousand years. The site is set on a UNESCO heritage site and is one of the must-visit destinations of the state of Azerbaijan. The guided tour of the museum is fascinating and teaches a lot about their painting styles and content.
Ateshgah Fire Temple
The next site is north of Baku, so we returned most of the way we did in the morning and added another hour of travel in more rural and neglected areas compared to Baku’s splendor. Let’s say there is Azerbaijan and Baku, and the differences between them are heaven and earth.
Deep within one of the villages is the Temple of Fire, where the Zarathustra worship had taken place before becoming a persecuted minority. Thanks to the natural gas in the earth, there is a constant fire burning, which attracted the early believers to erect a temple there in the first century AD.
Since then it has been destroyed and changed hands many times and also added buildings and volume. Here, too, we took an excellent five Manat tour for a person who definitely enriches the visit and adds knowledge.
The fire temple
Yanar Dagh
The last site for today is a forty minute drive from the fire temple, where the real attraction is to see a fire coming out of the ground literally. In the past, in Azerbaijan there the phenomenon of eternal flame was very widespread (such as the fire temple for example) but the Azeri made them sources of income and took over most.
You can see it in the amounts of “grasshoppers” drilling oil and gas around the area. While the whole stay on the mountain of fire can take 10 minuets, I guarantee that this is a phenomenon I have not seen anywhere else in the world. After I returned I also saw people visiting there in the evening and it seems that this is a great experience too.
https://youtu.be/dDT2vxn3UYY
The fourth and final day: Shopping and returning home
We spent the last day in Baku doing extra shopping for sweets and pickles before returning to Israel, and took off home.
Ugh..
Baku Boardwalk