Baku
This tapering 29m stone tower is Baku’s foremost historical icon, with rooftop views surveying Baku Bay and the Old City. Possibly millennia old, its…
Must-see attractions in Azerbaijan
Baku
This splendid confection of sandstone walls and domes was the seat of northeastern Azerbaijan’s ruling dynasty during the Middle Ages. Mostly 15th century…
Baku
Vast and jaw-droppingly original, this Zaha Hadid building is a majestic statement of fluid 21st-century architecture forming abstract waves and peaks…
-
Azerbaijan
For those prepared to climb over 1500 steps up a mountain crag, one of Naxçivan's great highlights is the magnificent view from the sparse medieval ruins…
-
Azerbaijan
This ornate 1762 palace building features vivid murals and dazzling coloured light streaming through şəbəkə (stained-glass windows), making it Şəki’s…
-
Azerbaijan
Perfectly proportioned, if gently leaning, Naxçivan’s architectural icon is a 26m brick tower dating from 1186. It’s decorated with geometric patterns and…
-
Baku
Yarat means 'create', a spirit that's in ample evidence in this centre's many thought-provoking installations that don't shy away from sociopolitical…
-
Azerbaijan
One of Azerbaijan's most impressive Islamic structures, the İmamzadə is a masterpiece of brickwork and Central Asian–style blue majolica tiles on the…
-
Baku
Completed in 2012, this trio of sinuous blue-glass skyscrapers forms contemporary Baku's architectural signature. The three towers range from 28 to 33…
-
Baku
Ever-popular with strollers, this leafy piazza forms Central Baku’s natural focus. The fountains for which it is named include one topped by shiny…
-
Azerbaijan
Lənkəran’s sprawling bazaar area is centred on an architecturally drab concrete hangar, but it’s loaded with colourful produce and equally colourful local…
-
Azerbaijan
The Unesco-listed Qobustan Petroglyph Reserve protects thousands of stick-figure stone engravings dating back up to 12,000 years. Themes include livestock…
-
Azerbaijan
For a surreal slice of transplanted Teutonic history, drive around half an hour south of Gəncə to this agreeable small town founded as Helenendorf by…
-
Azerbaijan
The unique Ateşgah is an 18th-century fire temple whose centrepiece is a flaming hearth. Arching above is a four-pillared stone dome with side flues which…
-
Azerbaijan
Atop a supersteep grassy ridge, Beşbarmaq Dağ is a distinctive split crag whose mystical crown of phallic rocks attracts (mostly female) pilgrims. They…
-
Azerbaijan
In a raised gully near Digah village, a 10m-long strip of 'eternal' fire licks gently at at the foot of Fire Mountain. The name is misleading for what is…
-
Azerbaijan
Chabiant Winery offers the most appealing visitor experience of Azerbaijan's new breed of vineyards, with a hotel, tastings and swifts swooping between…
-
Azerbaijan
On top of utterly unpromising little Daşgil Hill is a weird collection of baby mud volcanoes, a whole family of ‘geologically flatulent’ little conical…
-
Azerbaijan
Two beautiful high-altitude valleys meet at charming little İlisu. Amazingly this diminutive village of photogenic old homes was once the capital of a…
-
Quba 1918 Genocide Memorial Complex
Azerbaijan
A startling pair of concrete spike-pyramids rise dramatically above a subterranean museum that very powerfully commemorates the massacres of April and May…
-
Azerbaijan
Naxçivan's most attractive settlement appears like an oasis amid craggy desert landscapes. Its central square features a classic old-men's teahouse…
-
Azerbaijan
One of Azerbaijan’s most intriguing shrines, this complex is topped with a beautifully patterned Central Asian–style dome and has an interior spangled…
-
Azerbaijan
Naxçivan's antiquity of human habitation is witnessed by a series of Bronze Age petroglyphs near the summit of remote Mt Gəmiqaya, thought to date as far…
-
Azerbaijan
In stark contrast to lowland Naxçivan's arid semideserts, the upland lakes of Batabat are set in high, rolling grasslands. They make for cooling family…
-
Azerbaijan
The brilliantly renovated round-towered 'temple' in pretty Kiş village has been lovingly converted into a very well-presented trilingual museum. It’s the…
-
Azerbaijan
Second only to the Möminə Xatun as Azerbaijan's most impressive medieval tomb-tower, the main 1320 mausoleum is a ribbed cylinder inlaid with ample 'Allah…
-
Qala Ethnographic Museum Complex
Azerbaijan
This impressive open-air park-museum features several furnished, traditional-style Abşeron buildings – such as a house, blacksmith's forge, potters'…
-
Azerbaijan
Today's Qəbələ was renamed for an ancient city mentioned in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History (AD 77), and forgotten after it was destroyed by the 18th…
-
Azerbaijan
This stylishly designed, relatively well-endowed little museum, opened in August 2018, attractively displays several antique grave sites and finds from…
-
Azerbaijan
This 22m square-plan tower is a very dramatic construction yet it somehow manages to lie almost entirely hidden in a series of old village-style…
-
Azerbaijan
One of Northern Azerbaijan's most culturally intriguing villages, Qrız sits on the crag-top plateau that looks out across the cliffs above Çaygoşan. The…
-
Azerbaijan
High above the city, a plateau of summer pastures known as Xan Yaylağı offers truly superb viewpoints back over the valley and northwards towards high…
-
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan's world-class observatory, founded in 1966, currently has six large telescopes beneath archetypal silver domes, most now automated. By paying a…
-
Baku
From historic flatweaves to modernist picture-rugs, this tailor-made museum displays and explains a superb collection of Azerbaijani carpets. It's housed…
-
Baku
The greatest attraction of this museum for most visitors is the western facade of the building it inhabits: a fine early-20th-century structure with…
-
Azerbaijan
In decades past, being sent to a Soviet salt mine was a synonym for horror. At Duzdağ, however, a former mine site has been converted into a curative…
-
Azerbaijan
Zaqatala’s Russian fortress is a sprawling affair whose grey stone walls are sturdy but not really imposing. Built between 1830 and 1860, it originally…
-
Azerbaijan
Əshabi-Kəhf is a series of holy caves, locally believed to be the scene of a Koranic miracle in which seven pious men managed to evade their enemies by…
-
Azerbaijan
The minuscule village of Cek (pronounced 'Jek') is just a handful of farmsteads around a rocky knob that protrudes from a sweep of grassy mountainside…
-
Baku
Full of rare trees, cafes, fountains and fairground rides, the central sweep of Baku's seafront park is eternally popular with families, amateur musicians…
