Farewell to Baku

This is the view of Baku from the Sahidler Xiyabani, the war memorials on the hill above the city.

And that's the last post on Baku as now in another city whose name those checking their blog hits might be able to guess.

More soon....

The Port of Baku

Baku is of course a major port, with ferries across the Caspian Sea to countries such as Kazakhstan and working ships to support the oil industry.

So here is a picture for the likes of Tugster

There were also pleasure trips around the bay, but the day I was hoping to go it was apparently too choppy.

The Communicating Multi-Polar World

I remember a couple of years ago that if you turned on the TV when travelling you'd get pretty much the same list of stations. It would be a couple of local ones, BBC, CNN, then something French or Italian and that would be it - maybe a dozen in total.

However in Baku there were 700ish stations with representatives of at least the following countries (there were certaintly more as many were using non-Latin script):

• Afganistan
• Algeria
• Armenia
• Azerbaijan
• Benelux
• Britain
• Bulgaria
• China
• Cyprus
• Czech Republic
• Egypt
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Hungary
• India
• Iran
• Italy
• Japan
• Jordan
• Kazakhstan
• Kurdistan
• Kuwait
• Libya
• Macedonia
• Morocco
• Oman
• Poland
• Portugal
• Qatar
• Romania
• Russia
• Saudi Arabia
• Serbia
• Spain
• Sri Lanka
• Sudan
• Syria
• The Netherlands
• Turkey
• UAE
• USA

Communication is no longer from the West to the developing countries but a matrix from everyone to everyone. The multi-polar world is here, but that message is not one that would be welcomed in some places (Fox News springs to mind).

But travelling brings home the reality: not just that power is shifting, but that power has shifted.



(The building in the pic above is the Azerbaijan National Library, the Akhundov Kitabxana)

Oil and Gas, Fire and Religion

Oil is the principle basis of the wealth of Baku, both now and in the past. The landscape north of Baku in the Abseron Peninsula is one of the locations that made the Nobels and Rothschilds rich in the first oil boom at the end of the 19th Century.

It is a scene of desolation, of nodding donkeys as far as the eye can see, not helped by the grey sky from which came steady rain that turned the soil to a heavy mix of oil and mud. To the south of Baku is a similar field that is called the James Bond Oil Field as that's where they filmed one of the series.

But the natural resource made Baku money even further back in history. Along with oil there is also gas, and this gas in places finds its way to the surface where it can catch fire.

And one such place can be found at the so called "Fire Mountain" or Yanar Dag (below) where a ribbon of rock burns continuously.

To be honest while amazing it was a modest site, with the ribbon of fire at the bottom of a ditch in a field, not a mountain in any stretch of the imagination.

But fire has caught the imagination of us humans since the dawn of time and was a central part of both Zoroastrianism and Hinduism. And so its natural that these ever lasting fires have been a magnet for these religions.

Just north of Baku is the Atesgah Fire Temple within which once burnt one of these fires, and which was a magnet for pilgrims from as far away as India.

Now alas the over exploitation of the oil field led to the natural flame going out and the ones you can see in the picture above come from the mains gas supply.

The Controvertial War Memorial

On the hill above Baku is the memorial to those who were killed in either the battles for freedom in 1990 or the war in Karabackh. It is a fine place to see the city and the way up is helped by a funicular railway.

There is another war memorial that has a more troubled history, for it is for those British and Commonwealth soldiers and sailors that died there in the first world war.

It was news to me that we Brits had even got this far, but apparently it was one of those complex Caucasus political sagas where by this time the Turks were the friends of the Azeris and tried to help them gain independence. However the Turks were the enemy of the British, and using the logic that my enemy's friend is my enemy too came and fought the Azeri.

So this memorial is not that welcome.

That is one trouble with being British - almost every country has some story and complaint against the actions of the old Empire.

In the tour of the Abseron Peninsula (next post) my guide told me another story. Apparently the British soldiers and sailors far from home had Baku girlfriends and even wives and when they had to leave they were given the last carriage of the train out of town. However for some reason, which my guide put down to tricks and treasons, the last carriage got disconnected from the train and was left behind!

My guide told me this story after asking if I was married - hmmm, maybe a message there.

Baku Old City

At the heart of Baku is the Unesco listed walled Old City. It's a wonderful place to explore whether day or night and get lost in its maze of little streets.

One of the high spots, along with the Maiden Tower, is the Palace of the Shirvanshahs (above), that dates back to the 15th Century and has been restored with some of those lovely petro-dollars.

Much of the walls remain intact complete with the gates:

At night it is quiet and in places rather badly lit. But that isn't a problem as Baku feels very safe, and its a pleasure to be able to look up and see stars.

The biggest danger was triping on a loose rock, missing a step or falling into a puddle!

Baku: Even better next time!

I have invented a slogon for the tourist board of Baku, namely: Even better next time!

This is because the city is in the middle of a huge project of regeneration, with building after building and square after square under wraps as the stone's are scrubbed and crumbling bits replaced.

The cause is what the locals are calling the second oil boom. The first was back in the late 19th Century, early 20th when Azerbaijan produced half the world's oil and Baku got very rich in the process. All over town are large mansions in what we would call Victorian era design.

An economist I was talking this morning said he wasn't sure if this was the best way to spend the oil revenue. I think he's wrong and taking a too narrow view on return on investment, as what could be a better legacy for the future than a regenerated city, able to stand its own for decades to come.

But in the mean time visitors such as myself must accept that much will be hidden from view, waiting for next time.

Maiden's Tower, Baku

This is the 29m tall Maiden's Tower, Baku, a place of many mysteries.

For example why is it called Maiden? There are several competing theories and many myths, most of which end up with some poor girl throwing herself from the top. More likely ideas relate to being a defensive structure that has never been captured as its real name of Qiz Qalasi can be translated as virgin tower.

Then there is the huge flying buttress to the right - why? The structure definitely doesn't need it, as the walls are 5m thick at the base. Another question is the door half way up in the picture above - where does that go?

Maybe it was unfinished and there were planned other towers that never got completed. Or maybe the buttress was a fire beacon and its original purpose was a Zoroastrian Tower of Silence.

Parts of the tower are very old, going back to the 7th - 8th Centuries BC, though much of the current form dates to the 12th Century AD.

Today its a good starting point for a tour of Baku as you get a good view of the city to plan your route.

Or alternatively if you've done the tour backwards you can see where it was you went.

The view from Baku

This was once considered one of the Seven Seas: it is the Caspian as seen from Baku in Azerbaijan.

To be precise it's the view from the Maiden Tower which I've just come down from, having done the Lonely Planet walking tour in reverse. In case anyone is wondering that's means beginning at the end point and finishing at the start point, not walking backwards!

More to come, but there is a work related point to this trip, so maybe not straight away.