🇦🇿 Azerbaijan
Baku
Baku is the capital of Azerbaijan and the largest city on the Caspian Sea — 2.3 million people on a peninsula jutting into the western Caspian, a city that has always been shaped by oil (the world's first industrial oil wells were drilled here in 1846; the Nobel brothers ran their oil empire from Baku in the 1870s–1880s; the city's pre-Revolution millionaires built the ornate sandstone palaces that line the Neftchiler Prospekti (Oil Workers Avenue) in Belle Époque style that makes the Old City look like a Central Asian version of Paris). The İçərişəhər (Walled City) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (2000) of medieval Islamic architecture: the Maiden Tower (Qız Qalası — a 12th-century cylindrical tower of unknown function, 29 metres, possibly a Zoroastrian fire temple or observatory before the Islamic period), the Palace of the Shirvanshahs (a 15th-century palace complex on a hill within the walls), and a dense warren of cobblestone alleys lined with 9th–12th century stone buildings. Modern Baku added the Flame Towers (three twisted glass skyscrapers shaped like flames, illuminated at night by an LED system that animates fire and the Azerbaijani flag across their facades), the Heydar Aliyev Centre (Zaha Hadid's most fluid building), and the Carpet Museum (shaped like a rolled carpet). Best months: April–June and September–October.