Caucasus Travel to Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, a republic in the Caucasus travel region, situated at acrossEastern Europe and Western Asia. Russia lies in the north, Georgia in the northwest, Iran in the south, Caspian Sea in the east, and Armenia in the west. The Republic has the second highest Shia population percentage after Iran with 95% of the population being Muslims.

Azerbaijan is well known for its ancient, historic and rich cultural, especially in the aspect of literature, music, architecture and visual arts. It has the largest agricultural basin in the region.

Azerbaijan is home to a vast variety of landscapes. More than half of Azerbaijan's land mass is composed of mountain ridges, crests, and plateaus of 400–1000 meters high.

Tourism is an important part of the economy of Azerbaijan with thousands take Caucasus travel every year to see impressive eruption of the mud. The most part of the territory of Azerbaijan is situated in the subtropical zone characterized by favorable climate which makes it the center of beach tourism.

Baku

The political, economic, and cultural centre of Azerbaijan. The region has been a source of crude oil extraction since 1871. This is one of the ancient and most populated places of the country as well as the Middle East as more than 1300 families live in a settlement of about 211 square km.

The well-known historical monuments found here includes the Maiden Towerand the Shirvanshah palace. A lot of other unique monuments have been preserved behind the walls of Icheri Sheher.

Gabustan

The archaeological reserve called Gobustan or simply Gobustan which is one of the first centers of human civilization and the rarest monument of the world culture, is located 60 km to the south of Baku. Another monument of the world UNESCO heritage is Icheri Sheher (Old City), known as a “fortress” is a unique historical and architectural conservation area in the center of Baku.

The popular Flame Tower complex composed of 3 buildings can also be found in Baku. One of which is used as residential building and the other for various functions such as a business center and the third tower is a home for the Fairmont hotel. The surface of the Towers reflects different visual characters in motion, easily visible from the far corners of the city. This is as a result of its LED screens surface.

The Caspian Sea, which is the salty largest lake in the World with about 371 000km square and the maximum depth of 1025m is located in Baku.

Different regions of the country have their own famous dishes. It is a piti (a national soup made of mutton cooked in a closed clay dish in stove), halva (oriental sweet made of sugar, nuts or seeds) in Sheki and levengi (chicken or fish stuffed with minced nuts with spices) in Masally and Lenkeran.

Sheki

Sheki is popularly known as the city of craftsmen and tradesmen since ancient times. Sheki was and remains the handicraft centre of tekelduz chain-stich embroidery. Archaeological data prove that Sheki city is located 380 km to the west of Baku and considered as one of the oldest settlements in the Caucasus region.

Sheki is well known for construction of caravanserais. Two of these caravanserais which has been preserved till date includes; Upper and Lower caravanserais. They were built in the 18th century are still being used for their intended purpose. The city is rich with historical and architectural sights, with lots monuments of early Albanian architecture, mosques, minarets, ancient castles, bridges etc.

Also notable is the palace of Sheki khans, no single nail was used in constructing the magnificent Palace, which has luxurious wall paintings and filigree windows. It is therefore considered as the pearl of the architecture of Sheki and the whole Azerbaijan which makes Caucasus travel to be very memorable.