Energy centre
Baku is getting all jazzed up thanks to its rich oil reserves, so now is a great time to visit this boomtown, where culture and industry collide Words | Piers Gladstone WHEN YOU HEAR mention of Baku city, you most probably think of oil. What you may not realise is that the Azerbaijan capital and the largest metropolis in the Caucasus is also [...]
Baku is getting all jazzed up thanks to its rich
oil reserves, so now is a great time to visit this
boomtown, where culture and industry collide
Words | Piers Gladstone
WHEN YOU HEAR mention of Baku city, you
most probably think of oil. What you may
not realise is that the Azerbaijan capital
and the largest metropolis in the Caucasus
is also home to a bustling and increasingly
cosmopolitan jazz scene. In addition, thanks to its roles in
the Persian, Ottoman, Mongol, Imperial and Soviet empires,
it’s also rich in historical charm.
Yes, of course there is oil. The discovery of “black gold”
in the 19th century saw Baku turn into a boomtown almost
overnight, prompting a frenzy of mansion-building just
outside the Old Town walls. By the early 20th century
Baku supplied oil to almost half the world.
A taxi ride from the airport to downtown Baku reveals
abandoned pipelines and pylons, spindly towers and
oil-drilling equipment with hardly any sign of human
habitation, just the remains of off-shore rigs, squatting
over the deceptively azure Caspian Sea. Yet at sunset,
this industrial detritus is a hauntingly beautiful sight.
alt="Old meets new – a wall carving can still be seen behind Baku’s industrial pipes and cables">
These days, the oil fields are back in business: the mid-
1990s saw the signing of a $7.4 billion production-sharing
agreement between Azerbaijan’s state oil company and 10
major foreign oil companies, as well as the construction of
the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline that will take Azeri oil to Turkey
and then on to the US market. Baku’s economic future looks
set to continue to rise.
However, it is in Baku’s past and the historic Old Town
– now a UNESCO World Heritage site – where you will
find the city’s heart. Surrounded by the ancient city walls,
the Old Town is a labyrinth of alleys covered in vines and
latticed with telephone and electricity cables which loop
across the narrow cobbled streets. Some of the carved
wooden doors hang ajar, offering a tantalising glimpse
into others’ lives. Ornate metal grills protect ground-floor
windows. Centuries-old houses, mosques and palaces are
all squeezed into the maze and yet, for an old town in an
Islamic country, it seems unusually quiet and residential.
ALT="Azeri singer Sevda Alakbarzada, who performed at last year’s Baku International Jazz Festival">
The two main sights here are the Palace of the Shirvan
Shahs and the Maiden’s Tower. Built in the 15th century by
the then-ruling dynasty and beautifully restored in 2003,
the Palace of the Shirvan Shahs’ simple architecture is
complemented by ornate latticework and calligraphy above
the doors and windows. The palace occupies several terraces
and gives a real sense of the court life happening within its
walls, although really it is more of a multi-level complex,
with its own mosque, gardens, mausoleum, hammam
(Turkish bath) and courtyards. In one courtyard lie the 13thcentury
Bayil Stones – large carved slabs, some with Arabic
inscriptions, others depicting animal and human faces.
The 8th-century Maiden’s Tower is a circular stone
tower with five-metre thick walls, which rises 29 metres
above the Old Town. On each floor there are small
exhibits: old black-and-white photos of Baku and
even ornately decorated double-headed axes.
Its top gives a breathtaking panorama of
the capital: the harbour, the Old Town,
the New Town’s grand colonnaded
mansions and boulevards, the
Caspian Sea, and the hills
where the Soviets built their
trademark tower blocks.
Great local markets
lie near the tower as well as on the Old Town’s most popular
main street, Nezari, where you’ll find silk carpets, copper
items and art for sale. A short stroll from Nezari Street you
can rest yourself on a bench in the City Park, a peaceful spot
that’s popular with locals and which has a line of impressive
fountains down the middle.
alt="Baku’s New Town with the Caspian Sea in the background">
Staying in the Old Town you’ll find the Mugam Club on
Hagigat Rzayeva Street, a popular spot for locals to celebrate
birthdays and weddings – and the perfect place to discover
traditional Azeri cuisine and music. Carpets hang from the
arched balconies of this ancient caravanserai – once a place
where traders coming to Baku could stay the night before
going to the market the next day – lending it a magical
quality. Here you can dine on mini dolmasi (minced lamb and
rice wrapped in vine leaves), sturgeon and chicken shashlik
(kebabs), lamb plov (a delicious Central Asian rice dish) with
almonds and prunes, while being entertained by the house
band and an assortment of belly dancers and traditional Azeri
dancers (although Azerbaijan is officially an Islamic nation,
alcohol and relaxed dress codes for women are the norm).
Mugam is a traditional music of Azerbaijan, but since the
early 20th century, when the oil boom trailed jazz in its wake,
a hybrid was born: mugam jazz. You can hear it at the
Caravan Jazz Club on nearby Aliyev Street and at the Baku
International Jazz Festival, expected to take place this year in
June. Set up in 2004, it has proved so successful that it has
pulled in the jazz giants Herbie Hancock and Billy Cobham.
alt="Baku has several restaurants to suit Westerners and some are owned and run by ex-pats">
Central Baku is also home to an interesting and quirky
collection of museums. The State Art Museum has an
impressive collection of 19th-century and modern Russian
and Azeri art, while the Rostropovich Museum celebrates the
world-famous cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich,
who was born and raised in the house that the museum
occupies. Textile-lovers will revel in the Carpet Museum,
which houses more than 1,000 beautiful examples. An
illuminating explanation of the history, techniques and
meanings of the carpet designs means that it is well worth
paying for the English guided tour.
Rather less well known – surprisingly even to local taxi
drivers – is the Atesgah Fire Temple at Suraxani, 10km from
Baku. The original Zoroastrian temple, built here around a
natural gas vent in the 3rd century, was destroyed during
the Arab invasion in the 8th century. The present incarnation
was built in the 17th century by Indian Parsees and once
housed a community of fire worshippers and also received
Hindu pilgrims. The natural gas that emitted from the ground
ceased during the 19th century due to the explosion of
oil exploration. It is now piped in so that two small flames
remain: one in the centre of the temple and one to its side.
The temple itself stands in the centre of a courtyard,
complete with a trident on its roof of the Hindu deity Shiva,
the god of destruction. Some of the courtyard rooms have
life-size dummies of worshippers undergoing various forms
of extreme atonements and penance – one lies contorted
on a pile of gravel (which a sign tells visitors would have
once been hot coals), while another has chains and weights
crisscrossing his body. Apparently the occasional local fire
worshipper (and even more rarely, Hindu) still turns up, but
its religious community is no more.
alt="Checkmates – did you know that retired chess champion Garry Kasparov, world No 1 for almost 20 years, is from Baku?">
Another possible day trip from Baku is Qobustan (also
spelled Gobustan or Kobustan), 60km south of the city. Here
you can combine a visit to mud volcanoes with Stone Age
rock art. An estimated 12,000 years ago, when the area was
tropical and the sea level some 50-metres higher, huntergatherers
settled in the caves that overlook Qobustan
and the shores of the Caspian Sea. Amid the caves and
rocks, these people left 6,000 petroglyphs (images incised
on rocks) depicting their lives and rituals. The Qobustan
Museum offers fantastic guided tours in English that really
help bring the caves and those who lived there to life. The
mud volcanoes squelch and bubble grey liquid as mudfl
ows curl around the sides.
The hunter-gatherers, the Shahs, the Hindu fire
worshippers and the Soviets may have all departed,
but Baku retains a strong link to its past. Today, with its
renewed status as a major oil provider, a new chapter
is only just beginning.
FACT BOX
WHERE TO STAY
For the business traveller, the centrally located Radisson
SAS Plaza (340 Nizami Street, + 994 12 498 2402;
www.radissonsas.com) is the best hotel in Baku.
Alternatively, the Maiden Tower Guest House (34 Mirza
Mansur Street, +994 12 498 7839) offers spacious rooms in
the heart of the Old Town, with old world charm.
WHERE TO GO
- The Mugam Club, 9A Rzaeva Street, +994 12 492 3176.
- The Caravan Jazz Club, 4 Aliyev Street, +994 12 97 1139.
- The Azerbaijan State Museum of Art, 31 Istiglaliyat
Street, +994 12 92 3931, admission approx £2. - Rostropovich Museum, 19 Rostropovich Street,
(admission approx £1), +994 12 492 0265;
www.rostropovich.aznet.org/eng - Latif Karimov Carpet & Applied Arts Museum, 123
Neftichilar Avenue (the former Lenin Museum). English
guided tours are approx £6. - The Qobustan (Gobustan, Kobustan) Museum offers
English guided tours for approx £5.
GETTING AROUND
A taxi from Baku to Suraxani and back is approx £10;
a taxi from Baku to Qobustan and back costs about £50.
