ZZZ
BAKU
City life
With a medieval quarter that preserves Silk Route traditions
and a modern, ever-evolving core, the Azerbaijani capital is
something of an enigma, even to regular visitors
WORDS: Farida Zeynalova
“I
’d never leave this neighbourhood,”
says Musa, blithely tossing a pair of
dice onto the backgammon board in
front of him. “It hasn’t changed much, and I
like that.”
The 75-year-old retiree, who’s lived in
Baku’s Old City all his life, is sitting on
a rug in one of the historical quarter’s
many winding, cobbled alleys. His legs are
crossed, his shoes are of and he’s slowly
sipping black tea with a slice of lemon. The
very suggestion of living anywhere else is
met with a resounding tut. Behind us is a
rusty parked Lada, draped in a rug. Two
luxuriantly moustached men are leaning
against the bonnet — one plucking at
amber prayer beads, the other chomping on
sunlower seeds, which come wrapped in
newspaper. Above our heads, a woman in a
paisley headscarf hangs her washing on the
balcony, eavesdropping on our conversation.
Maiden Tower, a 12th-century monument,
stands majestically a few yards away, and we
can hear the clamour of nearby Kichik Gala,
a street lined with traditional restaurants
and rug shops.
This is the slow-paced, placid side of the
city that Musa and many others know and
love. But outside these 12th-century walls,
rapid gentriication is forging a very diferent
Baku. For more than 70 years, up until 1991,
Baku bent to the will of the USSR. The past
decade, meanwhile, has seen a wealth of new
hotels, architectural marvels and shopping
complexes, all integral to its rebirth. In
2010, Fountains Square, the city’s lush piazza,
received a facelit and now abounds withboutiques, restaurants and shady benches
with gossiping locals. Two years later, Baku
hosted the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest,
held in the purpose-built Baku Crystal Hall
on the harbour of the Caspian Sea. The
cityscape hasn’t stopped growing since.
That same year, the abstract, meringue-
like whirls of Zaha Hadid’s Heydar Aliyev
Center became a sot addition to the city’s
skyline of Soviet-era mass housing. Soon
ater, the likes of Formula 1 and UEFA
caught wind of Baku’s potential as a
moneyed host; there have also been bids,
albeit unsuccessful, for the city to stage the
Summer Olympics. But there’s no subduing
the splendour of the Flame Towers, a trio
of skyscrapers that lights up the city each
night with 10,000 LED screens — a nod to
Azerbaijan’s ‘Land of Fire’ moniker and its
heritage as the crucible of Zoroastrianism,
the ancient ire-worshipping religion.
The past few years have also seen
the emergence of platforms for young,
artsy Bakuvians — a naval base has been
converted into an exhibition space, galleries
have opened up in the Old City and the old-
school Baku jazz scene is slowly making a
comeback. Growing up in Baku during the
1990s, the country was fresh out of austere,
communist hands. Today, even to me, it’s
a puzzle — a confounding mix of Azeri,
Russian and Turkish in the Caucasus.
It’s trendy and traditional, Asian and
European. By day, you can explore ancient
troves from the Silk Road era, by night,
stroll the boulevard and feel like you’re
in an exciting metropolis. IMAGE: ALAMY150 nationalgeographic.co.uk/travel