Baku: city of fire

Fire Mountain with flame coming out of earth, no rain or snow can harm it…  In ancient times travellers came here because of this fire, the main treasure of the prehistoric people. Previously, they had to obtain it through difficult operations and then protect it. And then they saw this miracle. How could they explain it? Only by the the will of the gods. This is how the fire mountain became a temple. A city grew around this temple, the city of fire, Baku.

The heart of Azerbaijan, Baku, the city on the Caspian, as a point where European and Asian traditions meet, has always attracted attention. Many wanted to possess this strategic place. Persians, Romans, Arabs and Russians left their trace in the history of the city.

The heart of Baku is Icheri-shekher, the inner or old city. In Baku it is known simply as the Fortress. The main attraction of the Fortress is the Maiden Tower. A long time ago the Caspian waves could reach it, but later the sea receded. This is a massive and brutal construction, despite its romantic name. There are more than 40 legends about it. According to one of them, the protectors of the city hid their daughters there. Historians still argue about the purpose of the Maiden Tower.  Most of them believe that it was a fortress, but some think that it was not connected to defense and had sacral meaning. In their opinion, the tower is connected to the cult of the sun, similar to the Egyptian pyramids and Baylonian Zikkurats.The windows are an important part of the solar calendar. On December 22, the first rays of the rising sun shine straight into the central window of the Maiden Tower. This tower was a temple, a fortress, a prison and even a lighthouse. Its construction started in the pre-Islamic period. It was completed in the 12th century – the change in bricks is visible. Now it is a museum with a great view opening from the roof.

The young mayor of the old town, Mikhail Djabbarov, says that the historic part of Baku became a modern tourist center without harming the ancient monuments.

Mikhail Djabbarov, Head of the Icheri-Sheker museum

Our task is to keep Icheri-Shekher as we received it from our ancestors. The monuments that need it should be restored without any additional intervention. We are now working on creating a modern tourist infrastructure, because in the 21st century people want to receive the level of service they are used to.  I mean not only a basic service, but also good transportation and high-speed internet. We are doing a lot in this direction.

The old town almost without any decoration is shown in the famous Soviet movies. “Amphibian man”. “Tehran43”, “Aibolit 66”, “Don’t Worry, I Am With You” were shot here, but the most famous movie is “Diamond Hand”. Gaidai decided to shoot Istanbul scenes in Icheri-Shekher and it was a good choice. It was here where Nikulin and Mironov fell and the famous “Damn it” was said in from of this pharmacy that is now an educational center.

The Old Town is also the palace of the Shirvanshakhs, the ancient rulers of Azerbaijan. The ensemble includes the palace, Divankhane – the place where official state councils met, the tomb of the Shirvanshakhs, a mosque and the mausoleum of Seyyid Bakuvi, philosopher, mathematician and astrologist. The complex was built in the 15th century and is now under UNESCO protection.  It was a masterpiece of the construction technologies of its time.

Today Baku keeps building remarkable architectural complexes. Three new skyscrapers like three flames have been added to the city skyline. These Flame Towers, named because of their “fire”, did not spoil, but reinforced the spirit of the city. This is the main accent in Baku: the city develops without breaking with its past.

The Bibi-Eibat Mosque is a spiritual center for the Muslims of the region. It was built in the 13th century above the grave of one of the Prophet Muhammed's successors. The mosque was destroyed in the 1930s in the time of the communist God-fighting. It took three explosions to demolish it. The mosque was rebuilt only in 1998.

This is also Bibi-Eibat – the oldest industrial oil field in the world. Baku is unimaginable without these oil towers. Nobody remembers when oil extraction started here. Extraction is not even the right word, because for a long time the oil flowed by itself. In different parts of the Apsheron peninsula, the same as on Fire Mountain, the gas coming from underground produced flame when interacting with oxygen. In one of these places, 30 km away from Baku, the flame lasted for centuries. The Temple of Fire was built next to it. It was first mentioned already in the 3rd century AD.  It was used at different times by Zoroastrans, Hindus and Sikhs. It is a museum now, but religious visitors from India still come here. It was not only a temple.  The priests built an inn around it. There were rooms to sleep, a “parking lot” for camels and even a stock exchange. The price for this was paid in gold and salt.  The fire-worshippers left this place when the big capital and big science came here. A kerosene factory was built next to the temple. One of the rooms here was occupied by Dmitry Mendeleyev, who studied gas and oil here. The flame that existed here for centuries disappeared. The priests decided that this was a punishment for their sins and left the temple. In fact the fire went away because the mass extraction of oil started.

20 years later a true oil boom started in Baku. By the early 20th century Baku became one of the world’s biggest industrial centers. The industrial companies grew like mushrooms after the rain.  Great entrepreneurs, actors and architects came here. The ancestors of the famous musician Mstislav Rostropovich and the great physicist, Nobel Prize laureate Lev Landau who were born in Baku came to the city around this time. The Nobel Prize itself would not have happened if it was not for the success of the Nobel brothers’ oil enterprises in Baku.

It was then that the Russian theatre appeared. Going there is still a mark of taste in Baku. Alexandr Sharovsky, Director of the Russian Drama Theatre in Baku Baku is a melting pot where different cultures, religions and opinions coexist in a wonderful way.

This is the Contemporary Art Museum. It was opened in 2009. The unique design of the Museum, created by the famous artist Altai Sadykhzade, the great exposition of avant-garde pictures and sculptures and frequent exhibitions of world-known masters made this museum the visiting card of Baku. The works with a connection to Baku take special place. They show the city as it was seen by local artists.

But nobody painted the streets of Baku like this. It is indeed the capital of Azerbaijan and not London, but London cabs are driving around the city. There are several thousand taxis like this. These very comfortable cars appeared here just half a year ago, pushing out the private taxi-drivers and also became a visiting card of Baku. Ramiz has been a taxi-driver already for 15 years, he received the first Baku cab. The Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev also tried to drive this car and, it is said, liked it. Ramiz is now joking in front of the tourists that this cab used to carry the president. Most of the cabs have the Eurovision logo on their side. And the slogan of the contest “Light Your Fire”. It can roughly be translated into Russian as “Have fun”. And Baku will light its fire. Nobody doubts it – after all, it is the city of fire. The triumph of Eldar Kasimov and Nigyar Djamal was the beginning of a new project that went beyond the framework of the contest.  As a result Azerbaijan became the host of Eurovision 2012. The contests immediately became the national idea.

Even before that construction in Baku was very quick, but afterwards it increased several times, although it seemed impossible. The Azerbaijan Eurovision PR-manager says that this event is a great chance for the state to show its best sides to the world, especially when this is the first event of this scale since Azerbaijan got independence.

Kyamra Agasi, PR-manager of Eurovision-2012

We want every visitor to keep the memories of the festival for years. And in 10-15 years when people remember Eurovision they will do so with a smile.

Dozens of buildings were built for Eurovision. But the main one among them is the Crystal Hall, which is indeed a diamond of Eurovision. This  crystal of a concert hall was built in just eight months. This was a success of a complicated international engineering project. Now this building can accommodate 25,000 people and will host one of the most grandiose finals of Eurovision. The building was constructed on the site of an old military base. The authorities basically killed two birds with one stone – they tackled an environmental problem (you'll agree that an old military base does not fit into the center of the city) and found a perfect site for the new modern complex that became a part of the architectural image of the city and a logical continuation of State Flag Square. The height of this flagpole is 162 m, and the flag itself is just a little smaller than the average football pitch. Everybody here hopes that the winner of this Eurovision will hold a similar flag , maybe not that big though.

In 15 years Ramiz has learned all the streets of Baku, he does not need a map, but he says that the construction goes so fast that the familiar streets change every month: “I drive in the morning and nothing is there, but you look in the evening and get surprised. I can imagine how shocking it is for newcomers. Oh, a girl is driving. It is already beautiful now, but imagine how it will be in one year. Those who come here for the first time think that it is super”. 

Alla from Russia studies at the Azerbaijani Diplomatic Academy. Alla graduated from a pedagogical university in Russia and worked as a teacher. After an internship in the US she decided that she needed a second degree and chose Baku. “I want to work for an NGO, for some international company.  That is why I chose this academy. I study and at the same time get a knowledge of the region. This is why most international students come here – to get a sense of the region, to study everything on the spot. I think it makes sense.” The Diplomatic Academy opened in 2006. Its rector, former ambassador of Azerbaijan to the US Hafiz Pashayev, says that despite its young age, the reputation of the academy tends towards a height similar to the city skyscrapers. The Rector shows us the model of the new Academy site whose construction has already started. This innovative site includes a campus, lecture rooms, a library and a park. It should appear very quickly – as everything in Baku does.

Hafiz Pashayev, Rector, Azerbaijani Diplomatic Academy 

Almost two-thirds of the energy for this complex will come from the underground thermal source. The temperature underground at a depth of 13-15 m is constantly around 13 degrees. The effect of this difference will be used for heating in winter and for cooling in summer. This is a very interesting technology.  I will tell you that 290 boreholes have already been made. We plan to build a lake above this site.

The fact that Baku is starting to use alternative sources of energy despite the abundance of traditional is telling, although oil remains the most important factor in the Azerbaijani economy. The high-technology branches also grow very fast. The share of the non-oil sector in the GDP is about 60%, while the main investments go to large-scale infrastructure projects. This is another one, probably the most ambitious for today.

In the first oil boom in the late 19th century the eastern suburb of Baku was turned into a black town, where oil was processed and kept. Maxim Gorky, who visited in in the 1890s, left scary descriptions of the soil covered with oil, black exhausted workers, whose barracks reminded him of prehistoric dwellings and dirty children who looked like they were from horror fairy tales. The Azerbaijani capital grew during the Soviet period, and the black town found itself in the middle of the city – 200 hectares of polluted land did not contribute to the city's beauty. Several years ago the country’s authorities decided to realize a technologically very difficult project to regenerate the industrial zone to turn black into white. This is indeed a unique project, which after completion will provide housing and jobs for 50,000 people. It will almost be a separate town. 10 new districts mean new shopping malls, business centers, parks and boulevards. As the experts say, Baku White City is an example of the effective use of land and a “green” approach to architecture and urban infrastructure.  As a result of this, the famous Baku Sea Boulevard will run 10 instead of the current 4 km. This is how it looks now.

This place that looks like a computing center with its closets, computers and engines is the heart of the main attraction of the boulevard - the Seven Beauties Fountain, located in front of the Government building. Local and Italian engineers worked together to produce this miracle. The Seven Beauties Fountain is a new symbol of Baku, it combines both the desire to go higher and the passion of the city of fire.