Baku City, Azerbaijan: Things to Do & Travel Guide

1. What Is Baku and Where Is It?







Baku is the capital of Azerbaijan and the largest city on the Caspian Sea, home to around 2.3 million people in a bay on the Absheron Peninsula. It is also the lowest-lying capital city in the world, sitting roughly 28 metres below sea level.
Few cities compress so much contrast into so small an area. A walled medieval Old City — UNESCO-listed Icherisheher — sits directly beneath the Flame Towers, three glass skyscrapers that glow with LED fire after dark. A Zaha Hadid cultural centre stands a few kilometres from a 17th-century Zoroastrian fire temple.
Fire runs through everything here. Natural gas seeping from the ground has burned in this landscape for millennia, giving Azerbaijan its name as the "Land of Fire" and drawing Zoroastrian pilgrims long before oil made Baku rich.

1. What Is Baku and Where Is It?
 

Baku lies on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, jutting into the Caspian Sea at the crossroads of Europe and Asia.

1.1 What defines the city's character?
Old meets new — Medieval walls framed by futuristic towers, often in the same photograph.
Oil wealth — Two boom eras, a century apart, built the grand facades and the modern skyline.
Caspian setting — A long seafront promenade shapes daily life.
Wind — The name is often linked to Persian for "city of winds," and the gales are constant.
Compact and safe — Most highlights are walkable, with low crime rates.
1.1.1 Why is Azerbaijan called the Land of Fire?
Natural gas seeps have burned continuously on the Absheron Peninsula for thousands of years.
These eternal flames drew Zoroastrian worship, preserved today at Ateshgah.
Yanar Dag — a hillside that has burned for decades — is the most dramatic surviving example.
The Flame Towers are a deliberate modern reference to the same tradition.

 

2. What Is the History of Baku?

2.1 What are its ancient origins?
Settlement on the Absheron Peninsula dates back to the 4th millennium BCE, and the nearby Gobustan petroglyphs record 40,000 years of habitation.
Baku developed as a Caspian port and later a Silk Road trading point.
2.2 Who ruled Baku through the medieval era?
The Shirvanshahs made Baku their capital in the 12th century, building the walls and palace that survive today.
The Mongols sacked the region in the 13th century, and Safavid Persia and the Ottomans later contested control.
2.2.1 What did the Russian era bring?
The Russian Empire annexed Baku in the early 19th century.
The world's first industrially drilled oil well was sunk nearby in 1846, and by 1900 the region produced roughly half the world's oil, funding the European-style mansions that still line the centre.
2.3 What happened in the 20th century?
The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (1918–20) was the first secular democratic republic in the Muslim world.
Soviet rule followed until independence in 1991. Martyrs' Lane commemorates those killed in Black January 1990 and in the Karabakh conflicts.
2.3.1 How did the modern city take shape?
A second oil boom from the late 1990s funded a dramatic transformation, producing the Flame Towers and Heydar Aliyev Center (both 2012).
Baku hosted the 2015 European Games, Formula 1 since 2016 and COP29 in 2024.
 

3. What Should You See in the Old City?
Icherisheher — the walled Old City — was inscribed by UNESCO in 2000 and is the heart of any visit.
3.1 What are the essential sights?
3.1.1 Maiden Tower (Qız Qalası)
A cylindrical stone tower of uncertain date and purpose, and Baku's defining symbol.
Climb to the roof for views across the Old City rooftops to the Caspian.
Theories about its function range from fortress to Zoroastrian observatory.
3.1.2 Palace of the Shirvanshahs
A 15th-century royal complex of courtyards, a mosque, mausoleum and bathhouse.
Considered one of the finest examples of Azerbaijani architecture.
Allow about an hour; the layout rewards a slow walk.
3.1.3 Juma Mosque and the lanes
The Juma Mosque arch, carved with Arabic script, frames the city's most photographed view — medieval stone with the Flame Towers rising behind.
Beyond it, cobbled lanes hide caravanserais, tea houses, carpet shops and hidden courtyards.
3.2 What should you know about visiting?
Entry on foot is free and the gates are open around the clock.
A small surcharge applies if you enter by taxi.
Early morning and evening are best — softer light and far fewer people.
Individual monuments such as the Maiden Tower and Shirvanshahs' Palace charge separate admission.