5 interesting facts about Azerbaijan you may not have known about

5 interesting facts about Azerbaijan you may not have known about

This country has something to surprise travelers.

President of Pro-Vision, author of Vinogradov.story community

If in the past people came to Azerbaijan in search of color, nowadays it has developed tourist infrastructure and high level of service. What else will please and surprise this country, I tell you below.

Land of Fires

Azerbaijan is often called “the country of fires” or “the land of fire”: because of the surface deposits of oil and gas, one careless bonfire or an accidental lightning strike ignites fiery torches shooting straight from the ground. The cult of fire and the Zoroastrian currents that emerged around it provoked a kind of “fire-worship” on the Absheron peninsula: in the Middle Ages it was quite real, now it is rather symbolic. “Flashes” were romanticized and reinterpreted in architecture, music and painting. During a walk around Baku, one can always conjure up associations with fire – at a mere glance at the Flame Towers or the Heydar Aliyev Center by Zaha Hadid. The latter, by the way, has almost no straight lines, which only reinforces the resemblance to the tongue of flame – uncontrolled and willful.

Unique national sweets

The best thing you can do in Azerbaijan is to forget about restrictions for a while and go wild with local sweets. Shekerbura, gogal, sheker-chorek, dozens of kinds of baklava or more “healthy” marshmallows and dried fruits – it is impossible to stop, and you don’t really want to. Specialized confectionery stores with a wide range of national sweets are scattered around Baku. But the epicenter of sweet life and the point of attraction for gourmets is Yashil Bazar, the main city market. To leave here empty-handed is to deprive yourself of the pleasure of knowing Azerbaijan from the inside: haggling till hoarseness, choosing the ripest pomegranates and trying to memorize dozens of names of spices, spices, pickles and cheeses.

It is considered bad manners to invite guests to a restaurant

On the one hand, Baku is often compared to Dubai: there is indeed something in common in the appearance of seaside cities with skyscrapers pointing upwards. On the other hand, Azerbaijan is conservative in a good way. Somewhere at the junction of this craving for luxury and comfort with traditional life, a surprising phenomenon was born that struck me to the core. An entire apartment building, a typical Khrushchevka building, can be bought out for events – in this house every “apartment” is rented out for birthdays, weddings and national holidays. Depending on the size of the company can rent for the evening “three”, “two” or the entire stairwell with a gazebo in the courtyard. The whole point is that inviting guests to a restaurant or public places is considered bad taste, and the holiday in your own home promises a long preparation, cleaning and extra nerves. That is why enterprising Azerbaijanis came up with such an original business, skillfully balancing on the edge of traditional and modern hospitality.

Azerbaijanis are very fond of the sea

The Caspian Sea is called to pacify the “fiery” temperament of Baku. Having such a luxury, Azerbaijan uses it wisely – it develops both industrial port infrastructure and recreational and tourist infrastructure. Thanks to active investments in tourism, only half an hour’s drive from Baku one can find several modern complexes and beach clubs for comfortable beach vacation, for example, Sea Breeze. In the period from May to October, Azerbaijanis prefer to go to the water for the weekend: the effect is not too comfortable for the city +30. By the way, among the Caspian beaches one can find unexpected exotics – snow-white “Maldivian” or black “Icelandic” sand.

Unusual color of Azerbaijani cabs

One of the unofficial new symbols of Baku is recognizable “English” cabs of eggplant color, which came to Azerbaijan for Eurovision and have remained there until now. Unlike their London brothers, Baku “eggplant” cabs do not scare with neither status, nor price – and therefore are very much loved by residents and guests of the city. Today, about 1000 cars of the characteristic recognizable coloring can be found on the streets of Baku. And on the eve of important events or on other significant occasions (for example, for placement of social advertising) they are additionally branded, informing the citizens of important news. In my opinion, this is an excellent example of topical and ironic performance art, which has organically blended into the urban environment.