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Our tour group at Almaty Airport
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Azerbaijan: have you heard of this place? In The World is Not Enough, a James Bond movie,
Pierce Brosnan as agent 007, drives through the oil fields of Baku, the capital
of Azerbaijan.
We were all agog with excitement when Choo Kok Wai - organiser and
tour leader of our regular travel group - suggested a Trans-Caucasus tour to
visit Azerbaijan together with Georgia and Armenia. Choo organised a 17-day
tour for us but sadly, he could not join us. He appointed Lau Chee Hong to
replace him, assisted by Lau Chee Wai as treasurer and Bernard Au as Tour
Elder.
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| Map of Trans-Caucasus Tour: Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia |
Our Trans-Caucasus tour started with a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Almaty in Kazakhstan.
After a transit night there, we took a flight to Baku, Azerbaijan for a 4-day tour.
We proceeded to Georgia for 7 days and finally spent 5 days in Armenia.
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| Map of Azerbaijan and the places we visited |
Azerbaijan is bound by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, Iran to the south and Turkey in the northwest.
With a population of about 10 milliom, Azerbaijan has 90% Azerbaijanis, 2% Lezgians, 1.3% Russians and 5.1% other nations. The people are mainly Muslims (mostly Shiites) . Azerbaijan got its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
In Muslim Azerbaijan, I found that liquor is sold freely and the people are friendly and modern in dressing.
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| With a friendly and modern Azerbaijan girl |
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| A local guide at the Museum of the History of Azerbaijan |
Our 4-day Azerbaijan tour started in Baku. We
explored Absheron Peninsula, Baku city, Museum of History of Azerbaijan and
Gobustan National Park. We then travelled northwest to Shemakha and Sheki.
In Baku, Yasin, local guide, greeted us warmly and took us straight for lunch in a quaint local restaurant. Donning raincoats as it started to drizzle, we were whisked off to Absheron Peninsula for our first Azerbaijan encounter.
Absheron Peninsula
Azerbaijan means “land of fire” and our first stop in Ateshgah - Temple of Eternal Fire - showed how suitable and apt this name is. Ateshgah is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is known for the peculiar natural
phenomenon of burning natural gas outlets.
Constructed in the 17th –
18th centuries, it was built by Baku-based Indian (of Persian descent) community. It is a
holy place for fire-worshippers (Zoroastrians) from India who travelled
thousands of kilometres here to worship fire coming out of the earth.
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| Ateshgah - Temple of Eternal Fire |
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| Natural phenomenon of burning natural gas |
The Burning Mountain Yanar Dag, 30 minutes drive
away from Baku was just as awesome. Fire was burning continuously from natural gas
in the thin, porous sandstone layer of the hillside, in spite of the
rainy condition.
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| Yanar Dag: fire burns continuously from the hillside |
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| Kala, braving the heat for a photo shoot |
Baku
city
The main economy of Azerbaijan is oil. The oil boom in the 19th century caused Baku to become a rapidly developing city. As we travelled to tourist sites, we passed through many nodding donkeys and oil derricks. I then recall: Pierce Brosnan cruised along these oil fields in The World is not Enough. I was elated just thinking about it - we were breezing along the same route as Secret Agent 007!
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James Bond Oil Fields in Baku
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An old off-shore oil field
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Baku hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. Held in Baku Crystal Hall, Baku provided a perfect setting as the slogan for the competition was Light your Fire. United Kingdom's oldest participant, 76-year old Engelbert Humperdinck sang Love will set you free there.
Baku City is unique – it is characterised by an Inner
old Baku which is surrounded by a modern outer Baku.
Inner Baku/ Icheri Sheher
Icheri Sheher – the old part of Baku was intriguing. We walked around Old Baku and visited places like Maiden Tower, Caravanserai and others which gave us some idea of Baku in the past.
At the legendary 12th century Maiden Tower, some of us browsed around the shops outside, while others went in to climb up the many steps to the roof top for an aerial view of Old Baku as well as Modern Baku.
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| Maiden Tower |
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| Kim Lun and Yan Kuan grinning away at the top of Maiden Tower |
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The happy faces of those who climbed up Maiden Tower - with backdrop of Flame Towers
Photo: Lau Chee Hong |
As we walked along the streets, we chanced upon amusing and
unusual works of art. Some examples are paintings carved on trees, creative
sculptures and paintings placed on the roadside and a picturesque statue of a
poet, Aliaga Vahid who was born in Baku.
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| A creative painting on a tree Photo: Kala Rasiah |
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Creative sculptures and paintings
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| Poet Aliaga Vahid (1894 - 1965) |
We visited a local market to buy fruits. We were spoilt for choice. Eager sellers cajoled us to buy their fresh or dry fruits. After a long walk around the many colourful stalls, I bought some pomegranates which turned out to be sweet and juicy.
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| Market with all types of fresh and dried fruits. "Quru" means dry in Azerbaijani. |
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| Market with rows and rows of preserved fruits |
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An array of colourful fresh fruits like figs,grapes,
pomegranates, pears, peaches, nectarines, bananas and apples |
I was spellbound by the Baku Museum of Miniature
Books, the only one in the world. The vast collection of tiny books kept us engrossed for about an hour. Owned by 80-year old Zarifa Salahova who collected the books over a
period of 30 years, it had more than 6500 mini books in different languages,
from 64 different countries. Among the exhibits were three smallest books in
the world (2 mm x 2 mm) which could be read only with a magnifying
glass.
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Museum of Miniature Books
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| Close up of mini books Photo: Kala Rasiah |
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Another section of mini books Photo: Kala Rasiah
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Modern
Baku/ Outer city
I marvelled at the many ultra modern buildings built around the Old City. Baku has a wide variety of architectural styles,
from the 12th century Maiden Tower to the modern 21st century Flame Towers.
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| Modern buildings taken from my hotel restaurant |
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| High rise buildings with Islamic architecture taken from my hotel restaurant |
The Flame Towers, a trio of skyscrapers,uniting international and traditional architecture, was built
by HOK (Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum, an American firm). A symbol of modern Baku, it is the tallest in the country with a
height of 182 m.
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The Flame Towers: world-reknown modern archtecture,
well-lit up at night |
Heydar Aliyev Centre, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, was completed in 2012. It was constructed to celebrate the National Leader’s 89th anniversary. As it was late evening - we could only see its exterior but we enjoyed posing for photos in front of the iconic "I love Baku" sign.
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| Heydar Aliyev Centre Photo: Kala Rasiah |
As we toured the city, the Baku Olympic Stadium, with 69, 870-seats, caught my eye. What a massive modern structure. It was designed and constructed to
meet the international standards for stadiums set by the UEFA (Union of European Football Associations).
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| Baku Olympic Stadium |
Late at night, in the freezing rainy cold weather, we walked up the long steps of Martyrs’ Alley (Shehidler Khiyabany). This cemetery and memorial, dedicated to those killed by the Soviet army on Black January 1990, had an ever-burning fire at the top. From the top, we had a beautiful aerial night view of Baku city, especially the significant Flame Towers.
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Jan and Katherine at the top of Matyrs' Alley
Photo: Josephine |
Gobustan
National Park
Before visiting Gobustan National Park, Yasin took us to an indoor high-tech Gobustan Museum where we were introduced to petroglyphs etc. I found the exhibits- accompanied by music, pictures and videos - very enlightening.
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| Entrance of Gobustan Museum |
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| Exhibit: Petroglyphs of Human hunters |
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Exhibits: Stones showing:
1. Top - Petroglyph of a man, Mesolithic Era
2. Left - Petroglyph of an auroch, Neolithic Era
3. Right - Petroglyph of a lion, Neolithic Era |
Then we were off to the actual sites of Gobustan National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Amazingly, there were more than 6,000 rock engravings, dating between 5,000
to 40,000 years, The hunting scenes, men, women, animals and boats gave us glimpses of lifestyles
in pre-historic times. After the museum visit, it was easy to to depict or interpret what each petroglyph represented in the actual rocks in the open air.
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Our excited group at the entrance of Gobustan National Park
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Yasin demonstrating that rocks produce sound
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The guys taking a break
Seated: Lau Chee Hong (2nd from left) Bernard Au (1st from right)
Standing: Lau Chee Wai (1st from right) |
Bibi-Heybat Mosque
On the way
back from Gobustan, we stopped by to view the historical Bibi-Heybat Mosque. This mosque (built in 1990s) is a recreation of a mosque built in 13th
century. The most attractive feature inside was the green tiled ornate dome.
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| Bibi-Heybat Mosque |
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Front of the mosque
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| Interior: Ornate green-tiled dome |
Museum of History of
Azerbaijan
The National Museum of the History of Azerbaijan, also called Taghiyev Museum, is the largest museum in Azerbaijan. It was established in 1920 in the palatial mansion of oil baron, Hj Taghiyev.
It has more than 2000 artifacts, ranging from traditional and military clothing items, sculptures, murals and manuscripts.
The exhibits showcased the history of Azerbaijan from Paleolithic Age to the Current Age. The former glittery lavish living quarters - hall, bedroom, study, guest room, oriental room - of Hj Taghiyev also left us speechless.
I was most impressed with the exhibits detailing the history of Azerbaijan. A few of the exhibits are shown below.
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| Mustache trainer |
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| A carpet weaved of Hj Taghiyev |
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| Living quarters of Hj Taghiyev |
After touring Baku, we headed northwest to visit Shemakha and
Sheki. On the way, we stopped at Mereze to view the Diri Baba Mausoleum.
In Shemakha, we visited Juma Mosque and Yeddi Gumbaz (7 Domes), graveyard of
Shirvan Shahs. On the way to Sheki, we stopped at a Basqal village to sample
local mineral water, Bado and our last visit in Azerbaijan was Khan's Palace in
Sheki.
Mereze/Maraza
Diri Baba Mausoleum
This unique monument, a 2-storied mausoleum-mosque of the 15th century, has a legend that Saint Diri-Baba was buried there. It attracts visitors and pilgrims because of the unusual tomb built into the rock. It was difficult to climb up the narrow steps but those who went in said it was small but beautiful, set in a peaceful environment.
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Diri Baba Mausoleum-Mosque with its white dome on top -
gives the impression that the tomb is suspended in the air |
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| In front of Mausoleum |
Shemakha/Shemakhi
Juma Mosque of Shamakhi/Friday Mosque of Shamakhi
This mosque was reconstructed and restored many times throughout the years,f rom 743 to 2013 It is distinguished by its large size and silhouette and because of its correlation with earlier monuments of Islamic architecture.
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| Side view of Juma Mosque |
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A plague outside Juma Mosque
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| Pretty maids in front of Juma Mosque |
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| Part of the interior |
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| Dome and chandelier |
Mausoleum of Yeddi Gumbaz / 7 domes
This cemetry has 3 out of 7 mausoleums that are saved. The
architectural monument was built for a family of the Shirvan Dynasty. The
oldest is dated 1810. It is of architectural value because it has 8-edges, and
its external edges have niches, which are covered with arch-shaped
half-cupolas. Most of us were more interested in taking pictures of the
beautiful environment surrounding the domes.
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| 2 of the Mausoleum |
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| 3 of the Mausoleum |
Basqal village
We stopped at this village, to collect some Spring water that was
supposed to make us healthy and make our skin smooth. It was tasteless and I
wonder how effective it was?
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| Bado, water from a suophur spring |
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| Filling up with spring water |
Sheki/Shaki
Shaki Khan's Palace
Built in 1797, it was a 2-storied summer residence for the Shaki Khans. We
were not allowed to take photos inside, which was of outstanding quality. Large portions, including the southern elevations of the central halls on both floors, were covered by a mosaic of coloured glass set in a wooden latticework (shebeke) that was assembled without nails or glue.
The interior walls were covered with frescoes painted at different times during the 18th century, many featuring flowers in vases, while a series of paintings on the first floor halls depict hunting and battle scenes.
We were lucky to visit a little cottage where a workman showed us
how the stained glass windows were made.
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| In front of Shaki Khan's Palace |
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A worker showing how the little pieces of stained glass
were placed one by one in the wooden frame |
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| The finished product |
It was late evening when we entered a Caravanserai. These inns that provide accommodation for traders (who ply the Silk Road) were large, spacious and brightly-lit. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine camels or horses resting in the courtyard while the traders occupied the rooms in the upper levels. Many caravanserai in Baku are now converted to restaurants.
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Entrance to 18th centrury Caravanserai:
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Inside Caravnserai: Upper levels for traders to spend the night and courtyard for animals
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Azerbaijan
Cuisine
Azerbaijan food is different from that in Malaysia. It is not spicy, has little variety and is served Western-styled.
There is soup, bread and starters, followed by the main dish and dessert. In
the few days in Azerbaijan, we had cucumber and tomato as starters, blended
vegetable or meat soup, sturgeon fish, grilled or barbeque chicken or lamb as main dish followed by
dessert of pastry like baklava with tea.
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| At a restaurant in Baku: Food is usually served in a long table |
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Dinner at Old City Restaurant, Old Baku
Photo: Kala Rasiah |
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| ABCDEF soup |
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| Lentil Soup |
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| Bread |
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| Cheese is often served with bread |
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Appetiser: Cabbage and cheese
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| Salad of cucumber with tomato and onion as starter |
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| Main dish: Grilled lamb, eggplant and red pepper : |
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| Main dish: Barbeque chicken and lamb |
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Main dish: Grilled sturgeon
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Dolma - aubergine, green pepper and red pepper
stuffed with minced beef |
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| Dessert: Sweet cake with tea |
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| Dessert: Baklava and tea |
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| Dessert: Baklava and jam |
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Dessert: Figs
Photo: Kala Rasiah |
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Entertainment while we dined:
Musician with his mandolin |
Shopping
We did not have much time for shopping. At one local museum visit, some
of us bought shawls, scarves and costume jewellery at the souvenir shop.
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| Costume jewellery on display |
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| Shawls, scarves and other souvenirs on display |
Departure from
Azerbaijan
After breakfast in Sheki town, we departed to Lagodekhi border between Georgia and Azerbaijan. We bade goodbye to Yasin and I came away with a better knowledge and understanding of Muslim Azerbaijan.
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| Lau Chee Hong thanking Yasin on the last day in Azerbaijan |
