The first full day in Baku, with plenty to do, mostly outside the city for which we had to rent a car for the rest of the stay in Azerbaijan. As we were leaving our hotel for the bus stop I wanted to check parking in Icherisheher and went to the barrier booth. There, quite brusquely we were told off by the ticketing staff, No English, No English. We then took a bus to the Hayder Aliyev Cultural Centre.
Getting a bus was absolutely no hassle and we got off just at the entrance to the large complex that houses the Cultural Centre, which is a 619,000 sq ft building complex noted for its distinctive architecture and flowing, curved style that eschews sharp angles. The construction of the building started in 2007 and was formally inaugurated in 2012. Within a year some damage was caused by a small fire in the building.
The center is named after Heydar Aliyev, the first secretary of Soviet Azerbaijan from 1969 to 1982, and President of Azerbaijan Republic from 1993 to 2003. The Center houses a 1000-seat auditorium, a gallery hall and a museum. The project is intended to play an integral role in the intellectual life of the city. ZahaHadid, the architect of the project, won many laurels for the unique creation. The centre opens to public only at 11 am and I had much else on the agenda for the day. The beautiful forecourt of the centre has carefully manicured lawns, children's play areas, waterbodies and plentiful walkways. The sights of the city skyline from the centre is something to die for.
For the Cultural Centre we took another bus to go to the Automile car rental office to pick up the car I had reserved. The rental office was busy and I waited a while with Ajay before I was called up to do the paperwork. The road rules were explained lucidly and what we had to avoid was clearly made known - no alcohol. The full coverage insurance did cost a bit, but bought us peace of mind, more than anything else. I was given a Hyundai Accent instead of the Chevrolet Spark I had booked, but at the same price. I arranged for the vehicle to be returned at the airport on the 28th morning.
The first place I drove to was Yanardag, about 30 km out of town through vast oil fields. The number of rigs that were at work were too numerous to be counted. The land was bare and the posh infrastructure of the city gave way to a very basic one. Yanar Dag, or literally the 'burning mountain' is a natural gas fire which blazes continuously on a hillside on the Absheron Peninsula of Azerbaijan, which itself is known as the Land of Fire. Flames jet into the air from a thin, porous sandstone layer; it involves a steady seepage of gas from the subsurface. It is claimed that the Yanar Dagh flame was only noted when accidentally lit by a shepherd in the 1950s.
At the entrance to the attraction, we bought a combo ticket that permitted us to enter Yanardag and Atashgah for a reduced rate of 15AZN, a saving of 3 AZN. The reason offered for the Yanardag fires is the result of hydrocarbon gases emanating from below the Earth's surface. The Yanardag reserve covers an area of 64.55 hectares with a 500-seat amphitheater for outdoor concerts. It features a 3-zoned museum with exhibitions displaying ancient stones and pieces of craftsmanship used by locals. There are also tombstones, ancient kurgans, and two burial grounds with historic graves. The museum is interesting and educational.
From Yanardag we drove to Ateshgah on the Absheron Peninsula. It is often called the "Fire Temple of Baku", which is a castle-like religious temple. Based on Iranian and Indian inscriptions, the temple was used as a Hindu, Sikh, and Zoroastrian place of worship. There is an inscription which invokes Lord Shiva in Sanskrit. Also, there is an idol of Lord Ganesha.
Atash is the Persian word for fire. The complex, which has a courtyard surrounded by cells for monks and a squarish altar in the middle, was built by Indian traders during the 17th and 18th centuries. It was abandoned in the late 19th century, probably due to the dwindling Indian population in the area. The natural eternal flame went out in 1969, after nearly a century of usage of the petroleum and gas in the area, but is now lit by gas piped from the nearby city for the benefit of tourists.
The Ateshgah was a pilgrimage and philosophical centre of Zoroastrians from Northwestern Indian subcontinent, who were involved in trade with the Caspian area via the famous Grand Trunk Road. The temple ceased to be a place of worship after 1883 with the installation of petroleum plants in the area. The complex was turned into a museum in 1975. The annual number of visitors to the museum is 15,000. The museum is very well maintained with the life and times of the monks and the contributions of various religions and patrons and their life styles explained vividly.
Just outside the complex that houses the Fire Temple and monastery are restaurants and shops from where one can buy traditional souvenirs, carpets and textiles. We drifted to the large traditional restaurant with comfortable seating and friendly staff. After a cursory study of the menu we settled for the Shah Plov. The waiter had suggested a salad and kebab platter; he told us that we would not be able to finish a portion of the Shah Plov there.
The hunger pangs we ignited further waiting for the order to arrive. What arrived were more tourists seeking out traditional food. The restaurant served continental, Indian and local cuisine. Most Indians gravitated to this restaurant for biriyani and other Indian specialties. When the order arrived, and it was ceremonially 'cut open' for the steam to escape and the Plov ready to be feasted on, we knew that we would have to pack the left over for dinner in the hotel. The Shah Plov is a typical Azerbaijani dish of flavourful rice cooked with meat, herbs, spices and dried fruits.
After the massive meal we took time to locate the mud volcanoes and the Gobustan National Park. I don't know whether it was the full stomach that played truant, but we landed up in one of the largest cemeteries we had ever been too! Surrounding it was oil fields with massive pipelines running for as long as the eyes could see. There was mud and slush in many places, but to our disappointment there were no mud volcanoes to be seen. We departed from there with a heavy heart and set course to the Bibi Hebyat Mosque.
The Bibi-Heybat Mosque is a historical mosque in Baku. The existing structure, built in the 1990s, is a recreation of the mosque with the same name built in the 13th century by the Shirvanshah king. The mosque had been completely destroyed by the Bolsheviks in 1936. The Mosque holds the tomb of Ukeyma Khanum, a descendant of Prophet Muhammad. It is today the spiritual center for the Muslims of the region and one of the major monuments of Islamic architecture in Azerbaijan. Overlooking the Caspian Sea, with magnificent views of the neighborhood, the mosque is a must visit for tourists as well. Alexander Dumas was one such in the 1850s and he called it the "the mosque of Fatima".
The next place of visit was another disappointment, the Flag Square. As we pared into what looked like the parking for the Square, a smartly dressed guard came across and informed us that the Square was under reconstruction and hence, out of bounds. We were asked to leave with any further ado. Ajay had seen, quite close to it, on Google Maps, the world's oldest industrial oil well. We set our sights for it and reached a large complex of water sports. The complex holds Olympic sized swimming pools and facilities for other aquatic sports. It even has a place for beach volleyball. The complex is known rather bombastically as the Aquatic Palace.
Just behind the sports complex is a functional oil rig that was spudded in 2005, now raising one ton of oil per day. In close proximity to that is the world's first industrially drilled oil well of 1846. Except for a solid rock that held the inscription and the wooden structure there was no other information there pertaining to that historical event in the Bibi-Heybat oil field. That laid the foundation for industrial production of “black gold” in Azerbaijan. By 1899, Azerbaijan led the world in the production and processing of oil, and it produced half of the world’s oil that year.
Having finished the day's program, we went to the Chai Lounge, a short distance from the Aquatic Palace, to experience the famed Azerbaijani chai. We ordered a pot of Karak Chai, which is poured into the traditional armudu glass, or pear-shaped glass. It is said to keep tea hot at the bottom while helping it cool faster at the top, maintaining a constant temperature. We slowly went through the large pot while looking for cheap parking in the city, not far from our accommodation.
Ajay found one within the Daniz Mall complex. The large car park was mostly full, it being a Sunday. We found a slot and parked. Families were out in large numbers to the attractions that ringed the Caspian Sea, like the Baku Eye and the Mall. The fantastic Baku promenade offers a serene and wonderfully rejuvenating experience, with calm waters, super infrastructure, magnificent skyline, old and new landmarks.
We spent a lot of time savoring the atmosphere, watching the lights come on and the tongues of flames coming alive with LED displays. We watched schools of fish, swarms of seagulls and responsible citizens interacting with the beauty of nature those provided by man. After enjoying the setting sun and the night sights we walked back to the hotel via the Philharmonic Park and by the Philharmonic Fountain. The park was established beginning in 1830; ship's captains coming from Iran were asked to bring a sack of soil to add to it. It was extended in the 1860s and 1870s to 4.6 hectares and an old-fashioned fountain was added to it by a French company's design.
The left over packed from the Ateshgah restaurant served well for dinner. Over the past two days we had walked over 17,000 steps each day. We did not feel the strain except on the first day when we had been exhausted by the long journey from UK and India to Baku. The clean air, wide open walkways and responsible citizens make it a joy to walk in the city to appreciate the attractions. Moreover, public transport, the Metro and bus, is superbly organised. As far as tourists are concerned, I am sure that Indians and Indian origin people constitute the majority of tourists; we saw them in plenty, with Hindi, Malayalam and Gujarati being the most heard languages.
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