Baku

Baku is an attractive city built around a bay on the Absheron peninsula and a quarter of the population of Azerbaijan lives here.

Central Baku is made up of the medieval walled city known as 'Icheri Sheher' with its medieval mosques, caravanserais, narrow alleyways, the Shirvanshah's palace and the mysterious Maidens Tower.

Nearby is the boom town district with its magnificent mansions and town houses built in the oil boom of 1870-1914, while the entire western front of Baku Bay is a wide and shady promenade with a children's park, cafes and tea houses (chaykhanas), where one can linger for hours over a cup of tea. Cruises on the Bay of Baku are available in summer from the waterfront.

Other places worth seeing include the bazaars, where amongst other things one can buy loose caviar, several art galleries, and museums including The Azerbaijan History Museum, housed in the 1896 mansion of Z. Taghiev the richest of the oil barons; which has a fine display of Azerbaijani carpets, together with Azeri jewellery, embroidery and metalwork, The Fizuli Museum of Manuscripts with its extensive collection of old miniatures. Also of interest are the 'house museums,' former houses or apartments of famous people, now open to the public.