We chose to live right near the Old City that was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007. Wondering around the narrow interior passages, catching glimpses of people hanging their laundry or making their way to work is my favorite. Its easy (not necessarily accurate) to imagine what it was like, and is like, to live in a design of the middle ages. The main features of the old city includes the walls, a few mosques, the Shirvanshahs palace, and the Maiden Tower, but there is more.

At the moment, Baku is not overrun by tourists even in its most relevant sites. It seems to me that tourists are mainly from Russia, Iran, and India, in that order. I am greeted in Russian 95% of the time. English tour guides are readily available at tourist sites and they do a great job for very a very reasonable extra charge.

Eva and my first visit to old town and walking through the walls. Michelle on the stairs between my school and the old town.

Eva in front of Maiden Tower and a picture of Maiden Tower from a nice rooftop restaurant. Maiden Tower is old, probably 1,400 to 2,000 years old, some of the work done in the twelve hundreds. (There is evidence of human inhabitants in Azerbaijan for 40,000 years) Its an interesting design that may have been a defensive fortification, an observatory, or a religious facility.

Michelle and I went to Maiden Tower and noticed a family speaking English, which is not too common. We had a nice Peace Corps connection, as Rachel served in Azerbaijan (2012ish) and met her future husband Karim. Those kinds of connections are really nice when traveling.

The 15th century Shirvanshahs Palace was hard to get a good angle on. Being a small country influenced by Persian, Ottoman, and Russian empires and their successor states, there were periods of time when the area of Azerbaijan was ruled piecemeal by Khans. We have visited a few of the palaces from this time.

We go in and get lost for a little while and then we pop back out. Blindly choosing twists and turns, orienteering by curiosity, until we glimpse the wall and either turn back in, or get on to the next part of our day.

UNESCO site – https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/958/