Things to do
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Ateshgah of Baku
A pentagonal caravanserai outside Surakhani encloses a central altar where a natural gas vent once burned, used by Hindu, Sikh and Zoroastrian worshippers who left inscriptions in the cells around the court. The original seep dried up when the oil fields drew the gas off, and the flame now runs on piped supply. Half an hour covers it.
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Baku Boulevard
A landscaped promenade runs for kilometres along the Caspian below the Old City, planted with palms and dotted with tea houses, a carpet museum and a small funfair. Locals walk it in the evening once the heat drops. The seaward end reaches the crescent-shaped Caspian Waterfront mall, and a funicular climbs from the middle towards the Flame Towers.
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Carpet Museum
Rolled-carpet architecture by Franz Janz houses the national collection on the boulevard, with weaving traditions arranged by region and by knot. Looms are worked in the galleries by weavers who answer questions. Photography is allowed, the labels run in English, and an hour is enough unless carpets are the reason for the trip.
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Flame Towers
Three curved glass towers stand over the city from the Bayil slope, holding a hotel, apartments and offices behind a skin of LED panels. After dark the facades run flame animations visible across the bay. The towers work better as a view than a destination, and the funicular from the boulevard climbs to the terrace below them.
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Gobustan National Park
Petroglyphs cut into boulders on a limestone plateau south of the city record hunting scenes, dancers and reed boats over thousands of years, and UNESCO lists the reserve for them. A modern museum at the base explains the dating. Mud volcanoes bubble on a separate track nearby, reached by a rough road that ordinary cars struggle with.
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Heydar Aliyev Center
Zaha Hadid's white shell rises and folds without a straight line anywhere in the envelope, and the building has become the image of post-Soviet Baku. Inside are galleries, an auditorium and a collection of classic cars. The interior can be quieter than the queue outside suggests, and the lawns are where most photographs are taken.
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Maiden Tower
Scholars have not settled what the Qiz Galasi was for: a fire temple, an observatory and a fortress have all been argued, and its lower stonework may predate the Islamic city around it. A stair of eight floors climbs to a roof terrace over the Old City and the bay. The stairs are narrow and traffic runs one way at busy hours.
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Old City
Walls from the twelfth century enclose a warren of lanes, caravanserais and hammams on a low rise above the bay, listed by UNESCO along with the Shirvanshah palace and the Maiden Tower. Carpet sellers and cafes fill the main routes, though the side streets stay residential. Entry is free and the lanes are walkable in an hour.
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Palace of the Shirvanshahs
Fifteenth century sandstone courtyards step down the slope inside the Old City, holding the shahs' residence, a divankhana, a mosque and a burial vault. Carved stone from the drowned Bayil castle is displayed in one room. Signage is thin, so the site rewards a guide or an audio tour, and an hour covers the terraces comfortably.
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Yanar Dag
Natural gas seeping through a sandstone hillside on the Absheron peninsula keeps a wall of flame burning at the base of the slope, a few metres high and alight continuously for decades. A viewing terrace and a small museum sit above it. The fire reads as pale and thin in daylight, so dusk is the hour to come.