Exploring Baku: Arrival and Initial Tour

We arrived at the capital of Azerbaijan, at the metropolis of Baku at 10.00 AM local time. We landed at the Heydar Aliyev International Airport at Baku. After deposition of our luggage at the Kristal Hotel, which is situated at a distance of 9 km from the Maiden Tower, one of the most prominent public congregational locations situated at Baku and 11 km from the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum, we embarked upon the initial phase of our educational tour, involving the visit and survey of “Icheri Sheher”,which is the medieval section of the old city. The Icheri Sheher or the Inner City, as the connotation goes when the word could be translated from the Azeri language to English, is spread over 22 hectares of real estate throughout the centre of the metropolis of Baku. This old city hosts more than 50 different monuments which have extensive architectural and historical value and could be considered to be reflective of ubiquitous merit of heritage. These monuments are reminiscent of variegated and bygone eras. Such monuments include the prominent Palace of Shirvan Shah, the Maiden Tower and Synyg Gala which, is also known as The Broken Tower. These specific monuments are considered to be the structures which have withstood the ravages of time and have survived till to this date. Thus, from an academic perspective, such monuments could be understood to be in possession of a transcending value in terms of historic and archaeological significance.

The visitation to the Palace of Shirvan Shah has to be mentioned with special emphasis on the educational value which could be derived from paying such a visit since this heritage monument is considered to be one of the pearls, from a figurative and allegorical sense, of the old and mediaeval Azerbaijani architecture. This entire edifice had been constructed at the earlier years of the 15th Century. This entire palace complex is similar to the other notable monuments which are located at different other historical cities of the globe and such cases generally take into account the similar monuments, comprised of palaces, which could be also reflective of the value of heritages and could as well be indicative of the significance of having been emblems of the mediaeval and ancient times when these palaces and residences of royalty could have been constructed. Such cases could involve the Escorial Palace or the Monasterio del Escorial at the city of San Lorenzo de El Escorial at Spain and the Alhambra Palace located at Grandada, Andalusia, Spain. The Shirvan Shah’s palace complex houses a section of historical old buildings, a royal residential palace, a Divankhana and the room of Shirvan Shah. Out of such edifices, the Divankhana is of particular significance from a cultural and historical architectural learning perspective. This structure is a rotunda pavilion and had been constructed on a tall stylobate during the 15th Century. The location of the entire structure is at the North-Western section of the Shirvan Shah’s palace. The builder of the Shirvanshahs palace had been Farrukh Yasar. The structure of the Divankhana is comprised by the twelve headed dome formulated on the octagonal rotor. This outline has combined the eight pointed open air angular structure. Nine separate columns line the porch pillars. These columns are diverging and are shaped individually. The tracks which could be observed on the columns are reflective of the fine tunic based decorations which used to adorn the columns. Divankhana could be accessed from two separate entrances one of which is located at the street and the other is situated at the yard.

The Divankhana is believed to have functioned as the reception region of dignitaries and as a seat of court judgement promulgation as well as the venue of government council and as a tomb as well.

The reflective observation regarding the observed features of the Divankhana could be termed as to be representative of the development of a specific perspective concerning the mediaeval architecture prevalent at the concerned region of Baku. This has been evident from the fact that the observed embroidery and the stylistic features of the Divankhana could provide an ample estimate of the prevalence of the influence of Central Asian architecture at Baku during the late 15th Century. The abstract conceptualisation could be formed regarding the perspective that such design and architectural tradition had been introduced to the Baku region by the invading Safavid armies which had occupied Baku during the middle 15th Century. From the perspective of the architectural genre, the Divankhana has some particular novelties which combined the strictly Central Asian Islamic architectural styles with the construction designs which had been frequented previously during the pre-Islamic periods at the concerned regions.

Furthermore, the reflective conceptualisation has progressed towards the active utilisation concrete evidence to support the perceptual and abstract learning. This has been achieved through understanding that the original architectural style, which had been prevalent at the Baku region and which had been also utilised in the formulation of some of the sections of the Shirvan Shah’s palace emanated from the pre-Islamic ritualistic funeral ceremonies.

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Apart from these, the Shirvan Shah’s palace also houses the palace mosque with multiple minarets, a bath house, a room which had been utilised by Seyid Yahya Bakuvi as well as the monuments which are situated at the Western section of the Divankhana. These monuments had been constructed at the later stages. The historical information provided by the tour guidance services communicated the information that the entire complex had been commenced to be constructed during the year 1441 AD and the Western section of the Divankhana was constructed in the year 1558 AD by the architect named Amirshah.

We visited the Caravanserais while undertaking and detour of the old city again at Baku. These are structures with particular historical economic and social significance. The Caravanserais are to be identified with the mediaeval versions of formally active rest stops or inns. Such facilities had been frequent destinations for the traveling traders, merchants and nomadic personnel who used to be travellers along the old Central Asian Silk Routes. Such rest stops provided the travellers not only secured shelters for nights, but, the Caravanserais also provided important social congregational spaces for visitors from distant lands including the East and the West. Thus, such facilities became usual structures throughout the various trading routes which crisscrossed the entire ancient and mediaeval Caucasus region.

We had been privy to the information that such facilities existed throughout the mediaeval Islamic domains, from Morocco to the west to India to the East. The Caravanserais were generally reflective of the particular fusion of the architectural traditions of the Islamic age with those of the local origins which existed prior to the advent of the Islamic rule at Baku. The architectural designs, though, provided similarities with the Caravanserais of other nations. The abstract conceptual learning could be understood to be the emphasis on utility of the buildings rather than their aesthetic or architectural values. Some of the Caravanserais have two or more floors, however, the basic design pattern has been the same in terms of each of the edifices. This consisted of a large courtyard situated at the middle of buildings and such courtyards are always open to air and the subsequent housing accommodations for the travellers and the visitor were situated around the central courtyard. The courtyard, apart from being a place where the inmates of the Caravanserais could be congregated, the courtyards also served as the staging areas for the animals which used to accompany these travellers on their long journeys. Such animals used to be, generally, camels, horses, donkeys, mules etc.

The Old City of Baku houses few Caravanserais, however, only two have been found to be marked in the traveller’s guide maps and these have been observed to be the most effectively preserved and aesthetically appealing structures of such a category. The information which could be derived from the traveller’s guide, had informed us about the origin of the Caravanserais to be of that of 14th Century. These two Caravanserais have been now converted into modern day restaurants and have been completely restored for such a purpose. The locations of these two Caravanserais have been along the main avenue of approach at some distance from the entrance to the fortress gate. The two structures are lined up in front of each other within the subsequently narrowing lane. In this context, it is necessary to specify the most important and interesting interpretation became apparent to me while having to observe the nature of establishment of the different Caravanserais which were located in front of each other. Out of the two, the name of the initial one has been Bukhara caravanserai. The significance of this structure had been the purpose of facilitation of occupancy of travellers and visitors on the basis of their veneration of monotheistic faiths or lineage of such arriving personnel to the theocratic discourses which preached the notion of singular Gods. By nature, this implied the Christians, the Jews, the Muslims and even the Zoroastrians. Such travellers and visitors mostly arrived from the different regions of the Middle East including the mediaeval Levant region, from the Northern Areas such as from Southern Ukraine and from the Donbas region and from the local regions including from the shores of the Black and Caspian Seas (especially for the Christians). On the contrary to Bukhara, the second caravanserai is called Multani Caravanserai and it was utilised for the purpose of hosting the people who belonged to the polytheistic faith groups which preached the veneration of multiplicity of Gods. These travellers and visitors could be understood to be Buddhists and Hindus originating at the Indian Sub-continent to the East of the region concerned. This particular observation heralded in two definite realisations from an abstract and perceptual perspective which contributed the learning concerning the socio-cultural scenario which existed during the middle ages. The first one has been the realisation that Baku had been a cultural melting pot representing a crossroad of civilisations during the Safavid dynastic rule over this particular region. Having been situated at a strategic location within the Caucasus region, Baku enjoyed the privilege of having been former transit point for the traders and merchants, roaming fortune seekers and nomads, travellers and cargo bearers and the visitations by such extensively diverse group of nationalities and ethnicities were mostly frequent in this regard. The socio-cultural influences derived from these extensive international demographic visitations could be observed in terms of the gradual development of the services and accommodation infrastructure development of the Old City of Baku. The second one of the realisations could be understood to be the generalist pattern of multicultural demeanour of the Old City where adherents from the apparently diverging and irreconcilable theocratic notions, predominantly on the philosophical and ritualistic levels, could be observed to have co-existed, depending upon the pragmatic approaches of international trade and commence performed through the main communication artery of the ancient Silk Route of Central Asia. As a side note, it is necessary to outline that the Multani Caravanserai appears to be only half of the size of the Bukhara Caravanserai. However, we learnt that the majority of the sections of the Multani Caravanserai is primarily located at the subterranean levels and thus are not directly visible. From a generalist perspective, the Caravanserais constituted the resting stops for travellers where the pleasantries of life could be indulged into at the vicinity of arched rooms and shaded trees.

On this day, the visit to the Miniature book museum as well as the Juma Mosque was performed. The Miniature book museum is located at the inner sections of the Old City and it is the only museum in the entire world which contains miniature books. The museum was commenced on April 2, 2002 and this Museum of miniature books and manuscripts had received the Certificate from the Guinness Book of World Records as to be the largest private collection of miniaturised books and manuscripts. The museum exhibits had been collected by the sibling of Tahir Salahov, named Zarifa Salahova. She had collected all of these priceless literary artifacts through the duration of 30 years and she has in her collection in excess of 6500 books which had been sourced from 64 different nations including Moldavia, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus and as well as from the different European and Central Asian countries. The objective of the museum has been to promote childhood literacy through public viewership increment. The collection of the museum is consisted of multiple categories of books including the miniature books which had been published during the post-revolutionary periods of Russia and during the existence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The exposition contains various rare editions of prominent Russian writers and thinkers such as those of Chukovsky, Barto, Gogol, Dostoyevsky as well as the works of Pushkin. Other most notable editions include the Azerbaijani literary classics involving Vagif, Khurshidbanu Natavan, Nizami Ganjavi, Nasimi, Fizuli, Samed Vurgun, Mirza Fatali Akhundov and of various other famous historical writers of Azeri nationality and the miniature books from these writers have been exhibited in the museum in chronological order.

This museum is consisted by 15 different sections and some notable ones could be identified as “International”, “Baltic countries”, “Smallest”, “Azerbaijani authors”, “Soviet era” “Oldest”, “Children's”, “Pushkin”, “Central Asia” and various others. The glazed cases for exhibition of the miniature books within the museum premises are 25 in number. In this context, the middle age based historical collection section of the books contains a copy of the Islamic holy book, Quran which was printed in the 17th Century, to be exact, during the year 1672. Other than this, a book published by Peter Schöffer who had been the successor to Johannes Gutenberg, during the 13th Century, could as well be discovered amongst the collections.

Next, our visitation itinerary included the Juma or Friday Mosque which is considered as one of the most colourful and impressive structures in all of Azerbaijan. The interior of the structure is richly decorated with colourful paintings and the arches around the central courtyard of the primary structure are also painted in bright blue colour.

After visiting the Miniature book museum, the next destination for our educational trip within the Old City of Baku had been the narrow and winding ancient alleyways and streets of the Inner City. This provided a multimodal educational perspective for visitors such as me concerning the visual exposure to the architectural and stylised evidence of the urban existence of Baku during a bygone era. This involved the paying of a visit to the Nizami Street which is considered to be the central street situated at the urban centre of Baku. The Nizami Street is reminiscent of the inception of the town planning projects at the new and planned city of Baku during the year 1864. The Nizami street bisects the entire urban space of the downtown of Baku along the West to East axis.

We completed the itinerary of the day and traced our way back to the hotel where we had housed ourselves and rested for the night.

After leaving the hotel Kristal, we made our way to visit the ‘Little Venice’ of Baku. This destination could be understood to be a small township which was developed and constructed during the 1960s at Baku as a leisure and tourism attraction. This facility is primarily built to replicate the city of Venice with the extensive canals and associated waterways with small, gondola sized boats which could be observed floating on such waterways. The current size of the ‘Little Venice’ extends up to 10000 sq km. The town is comprised of two very large and multiple small sized islands. These islands are interconnected through various bridges. The gondolas are made to travel within the channels of water and one critical realisation in this context could be understood that a significant difference from the actual metropolis of Venice exists in terms of the crystal clear and clean water which has filled the channels of ‘Little Venice’, as opposed to the muddy and opaque water at the channels of Venice of Italy. This is primarily a reminder of the ‘Little Venice’ being nothing but an attempted replication of the actual ancient city of Venice.

We visited the National seaside Boulevard area of Baku. This is locally known as the Bulvar and it stretches for several kilometres along the banks of the Caspian Sea. This visit provided me with the first-hand experience of witnessing the multiplicity of the urban inhabitants of Baku and I also managed to observe the various nationalities which currently dwell all across the urban space of Baku. The observation of such vivid format of urban demography at the Bulvar, provided the appropriate abstract perceptual development of the aspect of demographic transition which has occurred at Baku where, multiple nationalities have converged to accessed the betterment of living and this has transformed the general landscape of demography of the city where different age groups and ethnicities could be observed simultaneously leading differential existences.

I paid a visit to the famous Carpet Museum of Baku. This tourism attraction is a repository of primarily handicraft generated carpets which are thousands in number. The collection has been accumulated through the duration of 50 years. The structure had been developed during the Soviet era and all of the carpets of the collection are now housed within a purpose built structure which has been constructed in the shape of a carpet which has been rolled up. The concrete information derived from the structural novelty provided me with the reflective observation related knowledge of the transition of traditional Azeri architectural traditions to a greater structuralism based and indicative modern architectural format which was developed during the influence of the Soviet Union at this region. The representative structure is indicative of the oldest traditions of Azerbaijan in the form of carpet weaving and other handicrafts.

As a quick visitation to the famous archaeological monuments located at Gobustan National Park (territory of Gobu), we arrived at the location 30 miles southwest of Baku by boarding a paid shuttle taxi. This site is located at the shore of the Caspian Sea. The location consists of large volcanic rocks which are covered with carvings which had been inscribed in the late Paleolthic period by the local inhabitants. It is primarily a desert of volcanic rocks which stand amidst the surrounding mountains and smaller stones. As per our guide, the number of rock carvings goes well beyond 6000 at Gobustan.

This region also contains a series of sedimentary mud volcanoes with differential structures and physical dimensions. The location of such volcanoes could be found at Gobustan and at locations further inland as well. Some of these mud volcanoes are 700 meters tall and could be as wide as a 10 kilometres. Two of the largest of such mud volcanoes are located at Turaghai and Boyuk Khanizadagh at Azerbaijan. Major eruptions had taken place during 2001. I witnessed most of the volcanoes gurgling out mud intermittently and it sounded such as rumbling belching sounds. The dry conditions at the region had constituted dried and baked trails of mud in astonishing oozing patterns throughout the floor of the mud plains.

On our way from the mud volcanoes, the driver had taken a shorter route towards the destination through an inland avenue. We passed through the Bibi-Heybat settlement which is located 10 kilometres to the west of the city of Baku. This was the first commercially active petroleum field in the world with the first gush of oil being extracted during the year1846. Primarily, the petroleum well had been drilled 21meters deep. Now, the petroleum well is not active any more. However, our guide notified us that the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) had rediscovered the inner confines of the oil extraction pit and has reconstructed the site and now it is an open-air museum.

We returned to the Hotel Kristal as the visitations to the destinations of our itinerary of this day had been completed. We were slated to leave Baku the next day and for that we had to make the final hour preparations. However, tomorrow, I would be visiting one final location of educational interest at Baku which would be the Upland Park to have a panoramic glimpse of the city for the final moment.

I arrived at the Upland Park which is situated at the highest point of Baku and this provided me with a panoramic glimpse of the entire city strewn underneath as well as the bay area. I reached the Upland Park through the cable based railway and this generally takes 7 to 8 minutes. The top of the park consists of the square which house the famous Flame Towers which have been deemed to be the modern representation of Baku internationally. The visit to the park enabled me to witnessed the gradual transformation of this city through multiple ages including the middle ages, the advent of modernism in the early 20th Century and the subsequent planned approach in the new city, the distinctive utilitarian characteristics of the Soviet era architecture and that of the new city of Baku constituted in the early 21st Century.