1.
Town square
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A town square is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town used for community gatherings. Other names for town square are civic center, city square, urban square, market square, public square, piazza, plaza, most town squares are hardscapes suitable for open markets, music concerts, political rallies, and other events that require firm ground. Being centrally located, town squares are surrounded by small shops such as bakeries, meat markets, cheese stores. At their center is often a fountain, well, monument, many of those with fountains are actually called fountain square. In urban planning, a city square or urban square is an open area in a city. Red Square in Moscow was originally used as a marketplace and later became the stage for Soviet military parades. Similarly, Beijings Tiananmen Square was the scene of both communist parades and anti-government protests, john-F. -Kennedy-Platz was the site of the West Berlin town hall and John F. Kennedys famous Ich bin ein Berliner speech. New York Citys Times Square as well as Bryant Park, Washington, D. C. s National Mall, trafalgar Square in London does the same for the United Kingdom. Saint Peters Square in Vatican City, the enclave within Rome. Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto is a renowned and famous square in Canada, nathan Phillips Square is a popular square in front of Torontos landmark City Hall. Hviezdoslavovo námestie is one of the squares in Bratislava and a centre of a social life. Dam Square in Amsterdam for the Netherlands, Main Market Square in Kraków, Market Place in Warsaw and Wrocław Main Square for Poland. The City Hall Square, Copenhagen for Denmark, praça do Comércio, in Lisbon, Portugal, was formerly known as the Terreiro do Paço. It was destroyed after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake but was rebuilt, the symmetrical buildings around the square hold government bureaus and ministries. Wenceslas Square is one of the city squares in the New Town of Prague. In Mainland China, Peoples Square is a designation for the central town square of modern Chinese cities. These squares are the site of government buildings, museums and other public buildings, the probably best-known and largest such square in China is Tienanmen Square. The German word for square is Platz, which also means Place and these have been focal points of public life in towns and cities from the Middle Ages to today
2.
Mayoralty of Baku
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The mayoralty of Baku houses the executive authority of Azerbaijans capital, Baku, being the residence of the mayor. It is a Baroque building, built in the beginning of the 20th century, during Soviet era the building was named Executive Committee of Baku City Laborer Deputies Council, then Executive Committee of Baku City National Deputies Council. Since 1991 the mayoralty embodies the power of Baku. The Mayoralty of Baku was originally built as three-floor Baku City Duma and was influenced by layout of Hôtel de Ville and it has a spacious vestibule, wide corridors, marble principal staircase and sophisticated interiors. The second floor houses the rooms and session hall. The red decorative bricks and colored marble for the construction were brought from Italy, having posted a tower in the center of main front and uniting it organically with main part, Józef Gosławski provided brightness and entireness of the composition amid complex details and elements. The central part of the bears the seal of Baku. The building was Gosławskis last work, he died in the year the building was finished
3.
Baku
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Baku is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located 28 metres below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world and it is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, alongside the Bay of Baku. At the beginning of 2009, Bakus urban population was estimated at just over two million people, officially, about 25 percent of all inhabitants of the country live in Bakus metropolitan area. Baku is divided into administrative districts and 48 townships. Among these are the townships on the islands of the Baku Archipelago, the Inner City of Baku, along with the Shirvanshahs Palace and Maiden Tower, were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000. According to the Lonely Planets ranking, Baku is also among the top ten destinations for urban nightlife. The city is the scientific, cultural and industrial center of Azerbaijan, many sizeable Azerbaijani institutions have their headquarters there. The Baku International Sea Trade Port is capable of handling two million tons of general and dry bulk cargoes per year, in recent years, Baku has become an important venue for international events. The city is renowned for its winds, which is reflected in its nickname. Indeed, the city is renowned for its fierce winter snow storms and this is also reflected in the citys nickname as the City of Winds. A less probable folk etymology explains the name as deriving from Baghkuy, baga and kuy are the Old Persian words for god and town respectively, the name Baghkuy may be compared with Baghdād in which dād is the Old Persian word for give. Arabic sources refer to the city as Baku, Bakukh, Bakuya, around 100,000 years ago, the territory of modern Baku and Absheron was savanna with rich flora and fauna. Traces of human settlement go back to the Stone age, from the Bronze age there have been rock carvings discovered near Bayil, and a bronze figure of a small fish discovered in the territory of the Old City. These have led some to suggest the existence of a Bronze Age settlement within the citys territory, further archeological excavations revealed various prehistoric settlements, native temples, statues and other artifacts within the territory of the modern city and around it. In the 1st century, the Romans organized two Caucasian campaigns and reached Baku, near the city, in Gobustan, Roman inscriptions dating from 84–96 AD were discovered. This is one of the earliest written evidences for Baku, during the 8th century Baku was the realm of the Shirvanshahs. The city frequently came under assault of the Khazars and the Rus, shirvanshah Akhsitan I built a navy in Baku and successfully repelled another Rus assault in 1170. After a devastating earthquake struck Shamakhy, the capital of Shirvan, the Shirvan era greatly influenced Baku and the remainder of Azerbaijan
4.
Azerbaijan
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Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a country in the South Caucasus region, situated at the crossroads of Southwest Asia and Southeastern Europe. It is bound by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west and Iran to the south. The exclave of Nakhchivan is bound by Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and west, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic proclaimed its independence in 1918 and became the first democratic state in the Muslim orient world. The country was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1920 as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, the modern Republic of Azerbaijan proclaimed its independence on 30 August 1991, prior to the official dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. In September 1991, the Armenian majority of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region seceded to form the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the region and seven adjacent districts outside it became de facto independent with the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994. These regions are recognized as part of Azerbaijan pending a solution to the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan is a unitary semi-presidential republic, the country is a member state of the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the NATO Partnership for Peace program. It is one of six independent Turkic states, a member of the Turkic Council. Azerbaijan has diplomatic relations with 158 countries and holds membership in 38 international organizations and it is one of the founding members of GUAM, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Its term of office began on 19 June 2006, Azerbaijan is also a member state of the Non-Aligned Movement, holds observer status in World Trade Organization and is a correspondent at the International Telecommunication Union. The Constitution of Azerbaijan does not declare an official religion and all political forces in the country are secularist. However, the majority of the population are of a Shiite Muslim background, Azerbaijan has a high level of human development which ranks on par with most Eastern European countries. It has a rate of economic development and literacy, as well as a low rate of unemployment. According to the Davos World Economic Forum, Azerbaijans economy has scored 37th place within 138 countries in 2016, Global Competitiveness Index 2015 indicates that Azerbaijan scores highest in its region. ASAN services, established with Presidential Decree, are known for eliminating bribery. ASAN Service has been awarded with United Nations Public Service Award 2015, the ruling party, the New Azerbaijan Party, has been accused of authoritarianism and human rights abuses. The original etymology of name is thought to have its roots in the once-dominant Zoroastrianism. In the Avesta, Frawardin Yasht, there is a mention of âterepâtahe ashaonô fravashîm ýazamaide, the name Atropates itself is the Greek transliteration of an Old Iranian, probably Median, compounded name with the meaning Protected by the Fire or The Land of the Fire
5.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
6.
Azerbaijani language
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The language has official status in Azerbaijan and Dagestan but it does not have official status in Iranian Azerbaijan, where the majority of Azerbaijanis live. It is also spoken to varying degrees in Azerbaijani communities of Georgia and Turkey and by diaspora communities, primarily in Europe. Azerbaijani is a member of the Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages, modern literature in Azerbaijan is based on the Shirvani dialect mainly, while in Iranian Azerbaijan region it is based on the Tabrizi one. Azerbaijani evolved from the Eastern branch of Oghuz Turkic which spread to the Caucasus, in Eastern Europe, Persian and Arabic influenced the language, but Arabic words were mainly transmitted through the intermediary of literary Persian. By the beginning of the 16th century, it had become the dominant language of the region, the historical development of Azerbaijani can be divided into two major periods, early and modern. Early Azerbaijani differs from its descendant in that it contained a larger number of Persian. Early writings in Azerbaijani also demonstrate linguistic interchangeability between Oghuz and Kypchak elements in many aspects, despite major differences, they all aimed primarily at making it easy for semi-literate masses to read and understand literature. They all criticized the overuse of Persian, Arabic, and European elements in both colloquial and literary language and called for a simpler and more popular style. Despite the wide use of Azerbaijani in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, after independence, Azerbaijan republic decided to switch back to the Latin script. The first examples of Azerbaijani literature date to the late 1200s following the Mongol conquest and were written in Arabic script, in the 1300s Kadi Burhan al-Din, Hesenoghlu, and Imadaddin Nasimi helped to establish Azerbaiijani as a language through poetry and other literary works. In 1875 Akinchi became the first Azerbaijani newspaper to be published in the Russian Empire and it was started by Hasan bey Zardabi, a journalist and education advocate. Following the rule of the Qajar dynasty Iran was ruled by Reza Shah who banned the publication of texts in Azerbaijani, modern literature in the Republic of Azerbaijan is based on the Shirvani dialect mainly, while in Iranian Azerbaijan it is based on the Tabrizi dialect. Mohammad-Hossein Shahriar is an important figure in Azerbaijani poetry and his most important work is Heydar Babaya Salam and it is considered to be a pinnacle of Azerbaijani literature and gained popularity in the Turkic-speaking world. It was translated more than 30 languages. In the mid-19th century Azerbaijani literature was taught at schools in Baku, Ganja, Shaki, Tbilisi, since 1845, it has also been taught in the Saint Petersburg State University in Russia. Per the 1829 Caucasus School Statute, Azerbaijani was to be taught in all schools of Ganja, Shusha, Nukha, Shamakhi, Quba, Baku, Derbent, Yerevan, Nakhchivan, Akhaltsikhe. Beginning in 1834, it was introduced as a language of study in Kutaisi instead of Armenian, in 1853, Azerbaijani became a compulsory language for students of all backgrounds in all of Transcaucasia with the exception of the Tiflis Governorate. Azerbaijani is one of the Oghuz languages within the Turkic language family, the International Organization for Standardization encodes North Azerbaijani and South Azerbaijani as distinct languages
7.
Baku Boulevard
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Baku Boulevard is a promenade established in 1909 which runs parallel to Bakus seafront. Its history goes back more than 100 years, to a time when Baku oil barons built their mansions along the Caspian shore, the park stretches along a south-facing bay on the Caspian Sea. It traditionally starts at Freedom Square continuing west to the Old City, since 2012, the Yeni Bulvar has virtually doubled the length to 3.75 km, extending the promenades to National Flag Square. In 2015 White City Boulevard added a further 2 km to the east of Freedom Square and reports have suggested that eventually the boulevard might be as long as 26 km, including Bibiheybət. The boulevard was established to connect the oilfields in Bibi Heybet as part of the development projects by Municipal Horticultural Commission. In 1900, the Municipal Horticultural Commission decided to plant trees, kazimierz Skurewicz, a Polish engineer, designed a 20-meter-wide embankment, using vegetation that would survive Bakus extremely hot, dry and gusty climate. In 1909, Mammad Hassan Hajinski, Head of Bakus Municipal Construction Department improved the park by spending 60,000 rubles after Duma passed his resolution, to select the best design for the Boulevard, Hajinski organized a contest among the architects in Baku. However, since most of the citys 30 architects were busy designing mansions for oil barons, the winning design was titled Zvezda and featured a bathing house, luxurious restaurant and a dozen pavilions. The design specified that wastewater would be collected in a manifold instead of being discharged directly into the Caspian. Until the early 20th century, the avenue had mansions on one side, tons and tons of fertile soil were imported to enrich the soil quality. Bakus Mayor, R. R. Hoven, supported by the richest industrialists, in reality, this was a kind of tax or duty imposed for the right to use the harbor and load up with oil. Within a very time, enough soil was deposited. At the new Baku Bathing House, visitors could take a swim while visiting the Boulevard and this bathing house was closed in the late 1950s due to poor maintenance and the bays polluted water. The improved Boulevard stretched from what is now the SOCAR Circle to the cinema, restaurant. During the Soviet period, the casino was converted to a Puppet Theater, subsequently, the Boulevard was extended up to the Baku International Sea Trade Port. In the 1980s, the area was mismanaged and maintenance was neglected, the situation further deteriorated as the level of the sea began to rise so high that many of the trees and shrubs in the park started dying off due to the salinity of the water. At present, once again, the Caspian sea level is going back down, in 1936, a parachute tower was built and used for extreme activities. However, the tower was turned into a weather forecast table after a accident in the 1960s
8.
Vladimir Lenin
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Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known by the alias Lenin, was a Russian communist revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as head of government of the Russian Republic from 1917 to 1918, of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1918 to 1924, under his administration, Russia and then the wider Soviet Union became a one-party socialist state governed by the Russian Communist Party. Ideologically a Marxist, he developed political theories known as Leninism, born to a wealthy middle-class family in Simbirsk, Lenin embraced revolutionary socialist politics following his brothers execution in 1887. Expelled from Kazan Imperial University for participating in protests against the Russian Empires Tsarist regime and he moved to Saint Petersburg in 1893 and became a senior figure in the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. In 1897, he was arrested for sedition and exiled to Shushenskoye for three years, where he married Nadezhda Krupskaya, after his exile, he moved to Western Europe, where he became a prominent party theorist through his publications. In 1903, he took a key role in a RSDLP ideological split, Lenins government was led by the Bolsheviks—now renamed the Communist Party—with some powers initially also held by elected soviets. It redistributed land among the peasantry and nationalised banks and large-scale industry, opponents were suppressed in the Red Terror, a violent campaign orchestrated by the state security services, tens of thousands were killed and others interned in concentration camps. Anti-Bolshevik armies, established by both right and left-wing groups, were defeated in the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1922, responding to wartime devastation, famine, and popular uprisings, in 1921 Lenin promoted economic growth through a mixed economic system. Seeking to promote world revolution, Lenins government created the Communist International, waged the Polish–Soviet War, in increasingly poor health, Lenin expressed opposition to the growing power of his successor, Joseph Stalin, before dying at his Gorki mansion. He became a figurehead behind Marxism-Leninism and thus a prominent influence over the international communist movement. Lenins father, Ilya Nikolayevich Ulyanov, was from a family of serfs, his origins remain unclear, with suggestions being made that he was Russian, Chuvash, Mordvin. Despite this lower-class background he had risen to middle-class status, studying physics and mathematics at Kazan Imperial University before teaching at the Penza Institute for the Nobility, Ilya married Maria Alexandrovna Blank in mid-1863. Well educated and from a prosperous background, she was the daughter of a German–Swedish woman. Soon after their wedding, Ilya obtained a job in Nizhny Novgorod, five years after that, he was promoted to Director of Public Schools for the province, overseeing the foundation of over 450 schools as a part of the governments plans for modernisation. His dedication to education earned him the Order of St. Vladimir, the couple had two children, Anna and Alexander, before Lenin—who would gain the childhood nickname of Volodya—was born in Simbirsk on 10 April 1870, and baptised several days later. They were followed by three children, Olga, Dmitry, and Maria. Two later siblings died in infancy, Ilya was a devout member of the Russian Orthodox Church and baptised his children into it, although Maria – a Lutheran – was largely indifferent to Christianity, a view that influenced her children. Every summer they holidayed at a manor in Kokushkino
9.
Government House, Baku
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The Government House of Baku, also known as House of Government, is a government building housing various state ministries of Azerbaijan. It is located on Neftchiler Avenue and faces the Baku Boulevard, the rear side of the building faces busy Uzeyir Hajibeyov Street of central Baku. Government House was designed for 5,500 people, from 1924 to 1927, construction of several large government buildings was planned and included in the budget of Baku. In 1934, the Soviet authorities announced a tender for the construction of the Baku Soviet Palace, the competition was won by well known architects Lev Rudnev, V. O. With some alterations to the project, the building of the Government House was built between 1936 and 1952, the construction of the building also led to construction of Lenin Square in front of the Government House. In 1955, a monument to Vladimir Lenin facing Azadliq Square sculpted by D. M, garyaghdi was installed in front of the building. Lenins statue was removed during the Azerbaijani independence movement in the aftermath of bloody Black January. A large Azerbaijan flag now stands where Lenins statue stood, Lenin square was renamed Azadliq Square. The building housed many organizations and business firms after restoration of Azerbaijani independence in 1991, after complete renovation of the building, all business firms were moved to other locations in the city and the offices were provided to governmental organizations. In 2006, the government of Azerbaijan started renovation works of the building, $40.8 million Azerbaijani manats were spent for reconstruction and enrichment of the park surrounding the building. Being in the center of Baku, the Government House is among the mostly visited tourist attractions of Azerbaijan, Government House of Baku Mayoralty of Baku Neftchiler Avenue Google Maps profile
10.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
11.
Neftchilar Avenue
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Neftchiler Avenue is an arterial road in Baku, Azerbaijan. It begins at the west end of the Bayil district of Baku, previous names of Neftchilar Avenue were Alexander II Quay, Gubanov Quay, and Stalin Avenue. The street was named Neftchilar Avenue in 1961 in honour of workers of oil industry in Azerbaijan, the larger section of the avenue runs along Baku Boulevard
12.
Shusha
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Shusha, or Shushi, is a city in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in the South Caucasus. It has been under the control of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic since its capture in 1992 during the Nagorno-Karabakh War, however, it is a de jure part of the Republic of Azerbaijan, with the status of an administrative division of the surrounding Shusha Rayon. Situated at an altitude of 1, 400–1,800 metres in the picturesque Karabakh mountains, according to some sources the town of Shusha was founded in 1752 by Panah Ali Khan. Other sources suggest that Shusha served as a town and an ancient fortress in the Armenian principality of Varanda during the Middle Ages, from the mid-18th century to 1822 Shusha was the capital of the Karabakh Khanate. The town became one of the centers of the South Caucasus after the Russian conquest of the Caucasus region in the first half of the 19th century over Qajar Iran. Over time, it became a city and a home to many Azerbaijani intellectuals, poets, writers and especially, along with Tbilisi, it was one of the two main Armenian cities of the Transcaucasus and the center of a self-governing Armenian principality from medieval times through the 1750s. Throughout modern history the city mainly fostered a mixed Armenian–Azerbaijani population, after the capture of Shusha in 1992 by Armenian forces, its population diminished dramatically again and is now almost exclusively Armenian. The Gospel was created in Shusha by the calligrapher Ter-Manuel in 1428, panin, the Georgian king Erekle II documented that there was an ancient fortress which was conquered, through deceit, by one man from the Muslim Jevanshir tribe. The same information about the ancient fortress is confirmed by the Russian Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov in his letter to Prince Grigory Potemkin, when discussing Karabakh and Shusha in the 18th century, the Russian diplomat and historian S. M. Bronevskiy (Russian, С. Броневский implied in his Historical Notes that Shusha was a possession of the Melik-Shahnazarian clan, Russian historian P. G. Butkov (Russian, П. The mid-18th century foundation is supported by Encyclopaedia of Islam, Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary and Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Melik Shahnazar of Varanda, who was the first of the Armenian meliks to accept the suzerainty of Panah Ali Khan, Panah khan resettled to Shusha the population of Shahbulag and some nearby villages, and built strong fortifications. During the rule of Ibrahim-Khalil khan, the son of Panah Ali khan, although Panah Ali khan has been in conflict with Nader Shah, but the new ruler of Persia, Adil Shah, issued a firman recognizing Panah Ali as the Khan of Karabakh. Less than a year after Shusha was founded, the Karabakh Khanate was attacked by Muhammed Hassan khan Qajar, during the Safavid Empire Karabakh was for almost two centuries ruled by Ziyad-oglu family of the clan of Qajars, and therefore, Muhammed Hassan khan considered Karabakh his hereditary estate. Muhammed Hassan khan besieged Shusha but soon had to retreat, because of the attack on his territory by his opponent to the Iranian throne. His retreat was so hasty that he left his cannons under the walls of Shusha fortress. Panah Ali khan counterattacked the retreating troops of Muhammad Hassan khan, in 1756 Shusha and the Karabakh Khanate underwent a new attack from Fatali khan Afshar, ruler of Urmia. With his 30,000 strong army Fatali khan also managed to support from the meliks of Jraberd and Talish
13.
Sumgait pogrom
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The Sumgait pogrom was a pogrom that targeted the Armenian population of the seaside town of Sumgait in Azerbaijan in late February 1988. The pogrom took place during the stages of the Karabakh movement. The Armenian civilian residents of Sumgait, including women and children, were slaughtered with exceptional brutality, on February 28, a small contingent of Ministry of Internal Affairs troops entered the city and unsuccessfully attempted to quell the rioting. More professional military units entered with tanks and armored personnel vehicles one day later, government forces imposed a state of martial law and curfew and brought the crisis to an end. The official death toll released by the Prosecutor General of the USSR was 32 people, the civil violence in Sumgait was unprecedented in scope and was widely covered in the Western press. The massacre, together with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, presented a challenge to the reforms being implemented by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev was later criticized for his slowness in reacting to the crisis. Because of the scale of atrocities against the Armenians as a group the pogrom was immediately linked to the Armenian Genocide of 1915 in the Armenian national consciousness. A number of international and Soviet sources also describes the events as genocide of the Armenian population, Sumgait pogrom is commemorated every year on February 28 in Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and the Armenian diaspora. The Sumgait pogrom is considered to be a response of Azerbaijan to the peaceful demands of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians to secede from Soviet Azerbaijan. The Sumgait events marked the beginning of the violent stage of the conflict, the city of Sumgait is located near the coast of the Caspian Sea, only thirty kilometers north of the capital Baku. It had been renovated in the 1960s and had become an industrial city, second after Baku by its industrial importance, with oil refineries. Its population in the 1960s stood at 60,000, but by the late 1980s it had swollen to over 223,000, and overcrowding among other social problems plagued the city. While there was a rate of unemployment and poverty among the Azerbaijani residents. The political and economic reforms that General Secretary Gorbachev had initiated in 1985 saw a marked decentralization of Soviet authority, Armenians, in both Armenia proper and Nagorno-Karabakh, viewed Gorbachevs reform program as an opportunity to unite the two entities together. On February 20,1988, tens of thousands of Armenians gathered to demonstrate in Stepanakerts Lenin Square to demand that the region be joined to Armenia. On the same day, the Supreme Soviet of Nagorno-Karabakh voted to join the Armenian SSR, Gorbachev rejected these claims, invoking Article 78 of the Soviet Constitution, which stated that republics borders could not be altered without their prior consent. The vote by the Council and the subsequent protests were condemned also by the state-run Soviet media, however, as journalist Thomas de Waal wrote in his 2003 book on the conflict, after the appeal of the Council the slow descent into armed conflict began on the first day
14.
International Workers' Day
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Being a traditional European spring celebration, May Day is a national public holiday in several European countries. The date is currently celebrated specifically as Labour Day or International Workers Day in the majority of countries, some countries celebrate a Labour Day on other dates significant to them, such as the United States, which celebrates Labor Day on the first Monday of September. Beginning in the late 19th century, as the union and labour movements grew. In the United States and Canada, a September holiday, called Labor or Labour Day, was first proposed in the 1880s. In 1882, Matthew Maguire, a machinist, first proposed a Labor Day holiday on the first Monday of September while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union of New York. Others argue that it was first proposed by Peter J. McGuire of the American Federation of Labor in May 1882, after witnessing the annual festival held in Toronto. In 1887, Oregon was the first state of the United States to make it a public holiday. By the time it became a federal holiday in 1894. Thus by 1887 in North America, Labor Day was an established, official holiday but in September,1 May was chosen to be International Workers Day to commemorate the 4 May 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago. The police were trying to disperse an assembly during a general strike for the eight-hour workday. The police responded by firing on the workers, killing four demonstrators, the following day on 5 May in Milwaukee Wisconsin, the state militia fired on a crowd of strikers killing seven, including a schoolboy and a man feeding chickens in his yard. May Day was formally recognised as an event at the Internationals second congress in 1891. Subsequently, the May Day riots of 1894 occurred, the congress made it mandatory upon the proletarian organisations of all countries to stop work on 1 May, wherever it is possible without injury to the workers. May Day has long been a point for demonstrations by various socialist, communist and anarchist groups. May Day is one of the most important holidays in countries such as the Peoples Republic of China, North Korea, Cuba. May Day celebrations in these countries typically feature elaborate workforce parades, in 1955, the Catholic Church dedicated 1 May to Saint Joseph the Worker. Saint Joseph is the saint of workers and craftsmen, among others. It became an symbol of that period
15.
Victory Day (9 May)
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Victory Day is a holiday that commemorates the victory of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War. It was first inaugurated in the 16 republics of the Soviet Union, the Soviet government announced the victory early on 9 May after the signing ceremony in Berlin. Though the official inauguration occurred in 1945 the holiday became a day only in 1965. In East Germany,8 May was observed as Liberation Day from 1950 to 1966, in 1975, a Soviet-style Victory Day was celebrated on 9 May. Since 2002, the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has observed a day known as the Day of Liberation from National Socialism. After regaining their independence from the Soviet Union, the Baltic countries now commemorate the end of World War II on 8 May, two separate events of the capitulation of Nazi Germany took place at the time. First, the capitulation to the Allied nations in Reims was signed on 7 May 1945 and this date is commonly referred to as the V-E Day in most western European countries. Joseph Stalin was displeased by this, believing that the German surrender should have been accepted only by the envoy of the USSR Supreme command, field-Marshal Wilhelm Keitel submitted the German Instrument of Surrender to Marshal Georgy Zhukov in the Soviet Army headquarters in Berlin-Karlshorst. To commemorate the victory in the war, the ceremonial Moscow Victory Parade was held in the Soviet capital on 24 June 1945, the other World War II victory day, the V-J day is commemorated in August. During the Soviet Unions existence,9 May was celebrated throughout the USSR, though the holiday was introduced in many Soviet republics between 1946 and 1950, it only became a non-labour day in the Ukrainian SSR in 1963 and the Russian SSR in 1965. In the Russian SSR a weekday off was given if 9 May fell on a Saturday or Sunday, the celebration of Victory Day continued during subsequent years. The war became a topic of importance in cinema, literature, history lessons at school, the mass media. The ritual of the celebration gradually obtained a distinctive character with a number of elements, ceremonial meetings, speeches, lectures, receptions. In Russia during the 1990s, the 9 May holiday was not celebrated with large Soviet-style mass demonstrations due to the policies of successive Russian governments, Victory Day in Russia has increasingly become a celebration in which popular culture plays a central role. The 60th and 70th anniversaries of Victory Day in Russia became the largest popular holidays since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 2015 around 30 leaders, including those of China and India, attended the 2015 celebration, armenia has officially recognised 9 May since its independence in 1990. The holiday was celebrated there while the country was part of the Soviet Union. Azerbaijan has officially recognised 9 May since its independence in 1991, the holiday was similarly celebrated there while the country was part of the Soviet Union
16.
October Revolution
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It took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd on 25 October 1917. During this time, urban workers began to organize into councils wherein revolutionaries criticized the provisional government and this immediately initiated the establishment of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the worlds first self-proclaimed socialist state. The revolution was led by the Bolsheviks, who used their influence in the Petrograd Soviet to organize the armed forces, Bolshevik Red Guards forces under the Military Revolutionary Committee began the takeover of government buildings on 24 October 1917. The following day, the Winter Palace, was captured, the long-awaited Constituent Assembly elections were held on 12 November 1917. The Bolsheviks only won 175 seats in the 715-seat legislative body, coming in second behind the Socialist Revolutionary party, the Constituent Assembly was to first meet on 28 November 1917, but its convocation was delayed until 5 January 1918 by the Bolsheviks. On its first and only day in session, the body rejected Soviet decrees on peace and land, as the revolution was not universally recognized, there followed the struggles of the Russian Civil War and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922. At first, the event was referred to as the October coup or the Uprising of 25th, in Russian, however, переворот has a similar meaning to revolution and also means upheaval or overturn, so coup is not necessarily the correct translation. With time, the term October Revolution came into use and it is also known as the November Revolution having occurred in November according to the Gregorian Calendar. The Great October Socialist Revolution was the name for the October Revolution in the Soviet Union after the 10th anniversary of the Revolution in 1927. The February Revolution had toppled Tsar Nicolas II of Russia, however, the provisional government was weak and riven by internal dissension. It continued to wage World War I, which became increasingly unpopular, a nationwide crisis developed in Russia, affecting social, economic, and political relations. Disorder in industry and transport had intensified, and difficulties in obtaining provisions had increased, gross industrial production in 1917 had decreased by over 36% from what it had been in 1914. In the autumn, as much as 50% of all enterprises were closed down in the Urals, the Donbas, at the same time, the cost of living increased sharply. Real wages fell about 50% from what they had been in 1913, russias national debt in October 1917 had risen to 50 billion rubles. Of this, debts to foreign governments constituted more than 11 billion rubles, the country faced the threat of financial bankruptcy. In these months alone, more than a million took part in strikes. Workers established control over production and distribution in many factories and plants in a social revolution, by October 1917, there had been over 4,000 peasant uprisings against landowners. When the Provisional Government sent punitive detachments, it only enraged the peasants
17.
Black January
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Black January, also known as Black Saturday or the January Massacre, was a violent crackdown in Baku on 19–20 January 1990, pursuant to a state of emergency during the dissolution of the Soviet Union. According to official estimates between 133 and 137 Azerbaijani civilians died,800 people were injured and 5 persons went missing, however unofficial number put the number of victims at 300 dead. Later on, in 1995 Gorbachev apologised to Azerbaijan by stating, Black January is seen as the rebirth of the Azerbaijan Republic. In December 1989, Azerbaijanis living in regions bordering Iran ripped down border fences, the local authorities in Jalilabad surrendered to rioters, turning over administration to the Popular Front of Azerbaijan. This was followed by a non-violent turnover of the Lankaran administration to the Popular Front two weeks later and this led to demonstrations which demanded the ousting of Azerbaijani communist officials and called for independence from the Soviet Union. Their rhetoric was, according to a Human Rights Watch report, on 12 January, the Popular Front organised a national defence committee with branches in factories and offices in Baku to mobilise people for battle with Armenians. Local Azerbaijani authorities were unable to restore order because of internal quarreling, on 13 January, massive anti-Armenian pogroms started which resulted in ninety deaths, while thousands fled or were evacuated by the Soviet military. On 15 January, the authorities declared states of emergency in other parts of Azerbaijan, at the same time, fearing an intervention of the central Soviet authorities, Popular Front activists began a blockade of military barracks. They had already de facto control in a number of Azerbaijani regions. On 18 January, the Popular Front ordered supporters to barricade the main routes into Baku using hundreds of cars, trucks. The troops attacked the protesters, firing into the crowds, the shooting continued for three days. They acted pursuant to a state of emergency, which continued for more than four months afterward, declared by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, almost the whole population of Baku turned out to bury the dead on the third day,22 January. For another 40 days, the country stayed away from work as a sign of mourning, according to one report,93 Azerbaijanis and 29 Soviet soldiers were killed in the street skirmishes. Other reports state that 21 soldiers were killed and 90 wounded in the fighting, however, how the soldiers died is still disputed. The soldiers death toll was claimed by Soviet authorities to have resulted from armed resistance, other estimates indicate that between 133 and 137 civilians died with unofficial number reaching 300. Up to 800 were injured and 5 went missing, an additional 26 people were killed in Neftchala and Lankaran regions of the country. The governments decree said, Extremist groups are organizing mass disorders fanning national enmity and they are committing bold criminal acts, mining roads and bridges, shelling settlements, taking hostages. He noted how the Popular Front declared its own state of emergency in Baku before the action was taken, during the Black January crackdown, Soviet authorities managed to suppress all efforts to disseminate news from Azerbaijan to the local population and the international community
18.
Martyrs' Lane
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In the closing days of World War I fighting broke up as a result of Russian Civil War. Four groups fought for control of the area when the Russian Empire collapsed, fighting each other were the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, Armenians and Azeris. Many people were killed in the fighting including men from a small British force sent to prevent Baku falling into the hands of the Ottomans or the Germans. The site first served as former Muslim cemetery, where they buried the bodies of victims of the March Events of 1918 which was a part of the fighting of the Russian Civil War. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the statue as well as park amusement facilities were removed, some of its first men who were honoured by the newly instated memorial were those that died during Black January events of 1990 when Soviet forces invaded Baku. Its estimated that about 15,000 people are buried in the cemetery and it is located on a hill in the south of the city and offers views of the Caspian Sea. Thousands visit the shrine to pay their respects to those who had given their lives for Azerbaijans independence, the Eternal Flame memorial at Martyrs lane often covered by wreaths is usually attended by many presidents and dignitaries of Baku. Next to the memorial there is a Martyrs mosque also built by Turks, not far from the Turkish memorial there is a small wall acknowledging the British soldiers killed in the same conflict. Other frequently visited sites in the include the graves of the journalists Chingiz Mustafayev and Salatyn Asgarova. The first tomb in the entrance of Martyrs Lane belongs to married couple Fariza, Ilham was shot dead by Soviet troops and Fariza committed a suicide in two attempts after hearing about the death of her husband. Today, for the Azerbaijani youth their tomb become a symbol of fidelity and love, Black January Khojaly Massacre Battle of Baku
19.
Baku City Circuit
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The Baku City Circuit is a motor racing circuit in Baku, Azerbaijan constructed near Baku Boulevard. A lap of the circuit is 6.003 kilometres, making it the second-longest circuit on the Formula One calendar and it hosted the 2016 European Grand Prix and its support events. However, in July 2014 it was announced that the debut would be delayed until 2016. The six kilometre, anti-clockwise layout of the circuit was designed by circuit architect Hermann Tilke, the circuit was planned to start adjacent to Azadliq Square, then loop around Government House before heading west along a 1 km straight to the Palace of the Shirvanshahs and Maiden Tower. Here, the track was planned to have a narrow 7.6 m uphill traversal, the 2016 European Grand Prix was the inaugural event held on the Baku City Circuit. Many retirements were expected in the Formula 1 Grand Prix after the carnage of the GP2 Series support races and it therefore came as a surprise when the only retirements, of which there were four, came as a result of mechanical failures. Valtteri Bottas was forced to miss the whole of Free Practice 3 when a drain cover came loose, many drivers praised the circuit for the challenge offered by its mixture of long straights, slow technical sections and no margin for error due to the proximity of the walls. Lap record, Nico Rosberg –1,46.485 European Grand Prix Official website
20.
2016 FIA Formula One World Championship
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The 2016 Formula One season was the 70th season of the Fédération Internationale de lAutomobile s Formula One motor racing. The 2016 season saw the grid expand to twenty-two cars with the addition of the Haas F1 Team entry, Renault returned to the sport as a constructor after a four-year absence following their takeover of Lotus prior to the start of the season. The calendar has similarly expanded, with the return of the German Grand Prix, the European Grand Prix was also revived, with the event visiting a new circuit in Azerbaijans capital city, Baku. Nico Rosberg won his only World Drivers Championship title in the race of the season. With nine wins and seven podiums, Rosberg beat teammate. In doing so, Rosberg followed the success of his father in 1982 and became the son of a champion to become champion himself. This would later prove to be Rosbergs last season, as he announced his retirement from the sport shortly after winning the title, in the World Constructors Championship, Mercedes successfully defended their title for the second consecutive year, beating Red Bull Racing by two hundred and ninety-seven points. Ferrari finished third overall, a further seventy points behind, the following teams and drivers took part in the 2016 Formula One World Championship, Several team changes took place before the season began. The team uses power supplied by Ferrari and a chassis developed by Dallara. Dallara had last participated in Formula One as the manufacturer for HRT in 2010. Lotuss participation in the 2016 season was in question pending the resolution of a High Court case brought against the team by HM Revenue, both Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso underwent changes regarding their power unit supply. The team continued using Renault engines, however they were rebadged as TAG Heuer, Team principal Christian Horner named Renaults partnership with Mario Illien and his company Ilmor as a reason for staying with the manufacturer. Meanwhile, Scuderia Toro Rosso returned to using Ferrari power units, as they had prior to the start of 2014. Marussia applied for their name to be changed to Manor Racing. The team underwent a management reshuffle following the resignation of team principal John Booth, Sauber underwent a change in ownership in the week prior to the Hungarian Grand Prix, with the team being purchased by Longbow Finance. Despite the acquisition and the retirement of team founder Peter Sauber, the driver line-ups saw a couple of changes prior to the 2016 season and three more while the season was underway. Romain Grosjean left Lotus at the end of the 2015 season and he joined the newly formed Haas F1 Team for 2016, where he was joined by former Sauber driver Esteban Gutiérrez. Gutiérrez returned to competition after spending a season as Ferraris test, after having taken over the Lotus team, Renault introduced a new driver-line up
21.
Azerbaijani Armed Forces
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The Azerbaijani Armed Forces were re-established according to the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the Armed Forces from 9 October 1991. The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic had originally formed its own armed forces from 26 June 1918, however these were dissolved after Azerbaijan was absorbed into the Soviet Union as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic from 28 April 1920. After the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991–92 the armed forces were reformed based on Soviet bases, the armed forces have three branches, the Azerbaijani Land Forces, the Azerbaijani Air and Air Defence Force, and the Azerbaijani Navy. Associated forces include the Azerbaijani National Guard, the Internal Troops of Azerbaijan, and the State Border Service, which can be involved in state defense under certain circumstances. According to the Azerbaijani media sources the military expenditures of Azerbaijan for 2009 were set at $2.46 billion USD, however according to SIPRI, IISS also suggests that the defence budget in 2009 was $1.5 billion. The Ministry of Defence Industry of Azerbaijan supervises the design, manufacturing, regulation, in the future, Azerbaijan hopes to start building tanks, armored vehicles, military planes and military helicopters. The incumbent Minister of Defence of Azerbaijan is Colonel General Zakir Hasanov, since the fall of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan has been trying to further develop its armed forces into a professional, well trained, and mobile military. Azerbaijan has been undergoing modernization and capacity expanding programs, with the military budget increasing from around $300 million in 2005 to $2.46 billion in 2009. The total armed forces number 56,840 men in the forces,7,900 men in the air force and air defence force. There are also 19,500 personnel in the National Guard, State Border Service, in addition, there are 300,000 former service personnel who have had military service in the last 15 years. The military hardware of Azerbaijan consists of 220 main battle tanks, the air force has about 106 aircraft and 35 helicopters. Azerbaijan has acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear weapons state, Azerbaijan participates in NATOs Partnership for Peace. Azerbaijan joined the force in 2003. It sent 150 troops to Iraq, and later troops to Kosovo, Azeri troops are still serving in Afghanistan. Despite the rise in Azerbaijans defence budget, the forces were assessed in 2008 as not having a high state of battle readiness. The history of the modern Azerbaijan army dates back to Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918, first de facto Minister of Defense of ADR was Dr. Khosrov bey Sultanov. When the Ministry was formally established Gen. Samedbey Mehmandarov became the minister, chiefs of Staff of ADR Army were Lt-Gen. The Red Army invaded Azerbaijan on 28 April 1920, as many as 20,000 of the total 30,000 soldiers died resisting what was effectively a Russian reconquest
22.
Old City (Baku)
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Old City or Inner City is the historical core of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. In December 2000, the Old City of Baku, including the Palace of the Shirvanshahs and Maiden Tower, became the first location in Azerbaijan to be classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It is widely accepted that the Old City, including its Maiden Tower, date at least to the 12th century, the question has not been completely settled. Between 1807 and 1811, the city walls were repaired and the fortifications extended, the city had two gates, the Salyan Gates and the Shemakha Gates. The city was protected by dozens of cannons set on the walls, the port was re-opened for trade, and in 1809 a customs office was established. It was during this period that Baku started to extend beyond the city walls, thus the terms Inner City and Outer City came into use. Referring to the early Russian rule, Bakuvian actor Huseyngulu Sarabski wrote in his memoirs, the Inner City was the main part. Those who lived in the Inner City were considered natives of Baku and they were in close proximity to everything, the bazaar, craftsmens workshops and mosques. There was even a church there, as well as a barracks built during the Russian occupation. Residents who lived inside the walls considered themselves to be superior to those outside, with the arrival of Russians the traditional architectural look of the Old City changed. Many European buildings were constructed during the 19th century and early 20th century, using such as Baroque. In 1865, a part of the city overlooking the sea was demolished. The money obtained from this went into the construction of the Baku Boulevard. In 1867, the first fountains of Baku appeared in the Boulevard, in this period two more gates were opened, one of them being famous Taghiyev Gate. The opening of new gates and passes continued well into the Soviet period, the Old City was divided into several quarters, which also served as social divisions. Sometimes, the divisions of the Old City were named after theirs mosque, for example, Juma Mosque quarter, Shal Mosque quarter, Mahammadyar Mosque quarter, the workers marched about 200 metres along the tunnel, but then stopped, having met with water and silt masses. Judging by the photographs taken in the cave, the tunnel is built very thoroughly, the workers also found a handful of coins of the Soviet period, suggesting that there was somebody in the tunnel before them, but the unknown went down at least 20 years ago. Another version is that passage is one of the several, leading to the ancient Sabayil Castle
23.
Palace of the Shirvanshahs
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The Palace of the Shirvanshahs is a 15th-century palace built by the Shirvanshahs and described by UNESCO as one of the pearls of Azerbaijans architecture. The palace is depicted on the obverse of the Azerbaijani 10,000 manat banknote of 1994-2006, in the 15th century the Shirvanshah dynasty, under Ibrahim I of Shirvan, transferred his capital from Shemakha to Baku following a devastating earthquake. He committed himself to the construction of the palace, the building is believed to be a memorial complex built around the sacred place of worship and tomb of Seyyid Yaxya Bakuvi who was a Helwati Sufi saint. The Shirvanshahs were patrons of the Helwati Sufiye order, and Shirvanshah Khalilullah I was buried with his family in the grounds of the palace, other historians argue that the building was used as the rulers palace. Both theories suffer from the absence of evidence and it is known that wells inside the grounds of the palace were considered to have healing qualities until recent times, as was the hill where the palace was built. After the Safavid conquest of Baku in 1501, the Sufi order was expelled, over centuries the palace fell into ruin and was known in Baku as Baku Khans palace, this toponym moved into Russian historiography, first cited by Bartold. The main building of the complex was started in 1411 by Shirvanshah Sheykh Ibrahim I, the two-storey building of the palace numbers about 50 dimensions and outlines of the constructions connected with three narrow winding staircases. The big lancet portal directly leads from the courtyard to the second floor, a small, octagonal vestibule behind it connects it with the rest of the lodgings in the palace. Divankhana is a stone pavilion. It is inside a small courtyard surrounded by a gallery-arcade on three sides, pharid pavilion consists of an octahedral hall covered with a stone cupola inside and outside. The well-proportioned high portal of the entrance is decorated with an ornament. The ornament pictures interlacing fig and vine leaves, the portal is decorated with two medallions inside of which there are inscriptions in Kufic Arabic. The Mausoleum of the Shirvanshahs is rectangular and crowned with a cupola that is decorated from outside with multi-radial stars. On two drop-shaped medallions in the parts of the portal there are inscriptions with the architects name — Memar Ali. The Palace Mosque is in the court of the complex. There are two chapels for prayers in the mosque, a hall for men and a small hall for women. There is an inscription laid under the belt of the minaret. May Allah exalt the days of his governing and reign, seyid Yahya Bakuvis Mausoleum is in the southern part of the complex
24.
Maiden Tower (Baku)
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The Maiden Tower, also known locally as Giz Galasi, located in the Old City, Baku, in Azerbaijan, was built as some sources indicate in VIII-VII B. C. It is one of Azerbaijans most distinctive emblems, and is thus featured on Azeri currency notes. The Maiden Tower houses a museum, which presents the story of evolution of the Baku city. The view from the roof takes in the alleys and minarets of the Old City, the Baku Boulevard, the De Gaulle house, in recent years, the brazier on the top has been lit during the nights of the Novruz festival. Bakus Maiden Tower is a place and world famous landmark in Baku. The Tower is covered by cloud of mysteries and legends which are rooted to the History of Azerbaijan, the pool of towers epics and legends is a part of Azerbaijans culture and national heritage. Indeed, Some epics became a subject for scenario for ballets, the Maiden Tower is a world class Azerbaijani ballet created by Afrasiyab Badalbeyli in 1940 and ballets remake was performed in 1999. Consequent to the receding of the sea line of the Caspian Sea. This land was developed between the 9th and 15th centuries, when the walls of the old city, the including the huge bastion of the Maiden Tower were built. Some scientific sources indicate that the Maiden Tower is a paramount example of Zoroastrianism, davud A. Akhundov provides archeological and architectural evidences and argues that the Tower is Zoroastrians Fire temple-Tower which had 7 fire exits on the top of the tower. Zoroastrian believed that there are 7 Steps or 7 Sky to reach heaven, davud A. Akhundov and Hassan Hassanov date the fire temple-tower approximately as VIII-VII century B. C. The Maiden Tower set in the south-east part of Icheri Sheher, has mystique and hoary history, the area was first settled in the Palaeolithic period. This conclusion is supported by historian Bretanitskiy who has postulated that the tower was partly built in the 5th to 6th centuries. The site was believed to have been used originally during the Sasanid era as a Zoroastrian temple, further excavations have also revealed wooden girders, each 14 metres high, at the foundation of the tower. This has been inferred as an earthquake resistant design and it has also been conjectured that the cylindrical shape of the tower with 5 metres thick base walls tapering to 4.5 metres provided the solid foundation on which it has survived over the centuries. It is also mentioned that the tower was built at one go, the tower and other wall structures now under the UNESCO list were strengthened during the Russian rule in 1806 and have survived. Interestingly, there is a pool of mysteries and legends related to Baku Maiden Tower. However, the mystery is, the Towers design and purpose
25.
Heydar Aliyev Center
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The center is named for Heydar Aliyev, the leader of Soviet-era Azerbaijan from 1969 to 1982, and president of Azerbaijan from October 1993 to October 2003. The Center houses a hall, a gallery hall and a museum. The project is intended to play an role in the intellectual life of the city. Located close to the city center, the plays a pivotal role in the redevelopment of Baku. The Heydar Aliyev Center represents a form which emerges by the folding of the landscape’s natural topography. All functions of the Center, together with entrances, are represented by folds in a continuous surface. This fluid form gives an opportunity to connect the various cultural spaces whilst at the time, providing each element of the Center with its own identity. As it folds inside, the skin erodes away to become an element of the landscape of the Center. Heydar Aliyev Center had an official soft-opening ceremony on 10 May 2012 held by current president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, an internationally recognized architectural work, the building of the Heydar Aliyev Center has become a signature landmark of modern Baku due to its innovative and cutting-edge design. Extending on eight levels, the center accommodates a 1000-seat auditorium, temporary exhibition spaces, a conference center, workshops. The building was nominated for awards in 2013 at both the World Architecture Festival and the biennial Inside Festival, in 2014, Centre won the Design Museum’s Design of the Year Award 2014 despite concerns about the sites human rights record. This makes Zaha Hadid the first woman to win the top prize in that competition, the building was featured in Extreme Engineering, a documentary television series that airs on the Discovery Channel and the Science Channel. The episode called Azerbaijans Amazing Transformation was aired on April 22,2011 as part of Season 9, on July 3,2012, the Center held the ceremony of the official seeing-off of the Azerbaijani delegation to take part in the XXX Summer Olympic Games in London. The ceremony was attended by the President Republic of Azerbaijan, President of the National Olympic Committee Ilham Aliyev, photo banners reflecting the Olympic movement in Azerbaijan were installed in the lobby of the Heydar Aliyev Center. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev made a speech at the ceremony, on 20 July 2012, a fire started on the roof of the building at about 11, 30am. The fire was found to have resulted from negligence in the use of welding equipment in the roof, the resulting damage was found to have had grave consequences and material damage on a large scale. Subsequent to sixteen months of repairs, it was opened on November 5,2013. On Nov.2 and 3,2013, Moscow music theater “Helikon-Opera” under the direction of Peoples Artist of Russia Dmitry Bertmann presented performances at the Heydar Aliyev Center
26.
International Mugham Center of Azerbaijan
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The International Mugham Center of Azerbaijan is a center of Azerbaijani arts and music aiming to promote, preserve and popularize the specific genre of Azerbaijani music, mugham. It is located in Baku Boulevard, in downtown Baku, the Mugham Center was built on initiative of the First Lady of Azerbaijan, Mehriban Aliyeva. Mugham is an included in the representative list of the UNESCO Intagible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The construction of the started in April,2005. The center covers 7,500 square meters and has 3 stories, the funding was provided by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation. The design of the building was based on the elements and shapes of the tar, the concert hall fits 350 people. The center also has a club, restaurant, study halls, the official opening of the International Mugham Center took place on December 27,2008. The center hosts mugham festivals, concerts, and recitals of various singers and performers, about the Center, website of Azerbaijan Ministry of Culture and Tourism, accessed 25.10.2014
27.
Palace of Happiness
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The building was built by an Azerbaijani Oil Baron Murtuza Mukhtarov for his wife Liza-Khanum Tuganova. The designer was the Polish architect Józef Plośko who had built several other historic buildings in Baku in the early 20th century. Mukhtarv often took his wife Lisa Tuganova, who was of Ossetian origin, during one of their trips to France, they came across a beautiful French Gothic building. Lisa, astonished by its architecture said, How happy the tenants of this building must be, Mukhtarov did not reply but on his return to Baku, he ordered his people off to France to purchase blue prints of the building and bring them back to Baku. An exact copy of the building was raised in central Baku within nine months, on its completion in 1912, Mukhtarov surprised his wife by driving her there in a carriage and telling her that it was her new residence. The couple still lived in the palace until 28 April 1920, upon entering the building, three Russian officers were shot by Mukhtarov himself, after which he committed suicide. After the Sovietization in 1920 the building was given to the Club of Liberated Turkic Women, during the existence of Azerbaijan SSR, the palace functioned as the Palace of Marriage Registrations. The street lying on the side of the building carries the name of Murtuza Mukhtarov. On 5 July 2012 the building has reopened after major overhaul. Architecture of the Oil Baron Period
28.
Ismailiyya Palace
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The Ismailiyya Palace is a historical building that currently serves as the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan. It is located on Istiglaliyyat Street in Baku, construction began in 1908 and ended in 1913. The building was constructed in the Venetian Gothic style, the halls windows open onto Nikolayevskaya street. During the March Days in 1918 the building suffered damage from fire and warfare, in 1923, under the guidance of the architect Dubov, the building was reconstructed and the sentences on the front and side facades were removed. At present, the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences is located there
29.
Baku TV Tower
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The Baku TV Tower, built in 1996, is a free standing concrete telecommunications tower in Baku, Azerbaijan. With a height of 310 metres, it is the tallest structure in Azerbaijan, the tower has become one of the most prominent landmarks of Baku, often in the establishing shot of films set in the city. Construction work began in 1979 and according to the construction plan it should have been completed in 1985. After the return of Heydar Aliyev to power in 1993, the construction of the tower was continued, and in 1996 with his participation, a rotating restaurant on the 62nd floor of Azeri TV Tower was opened in 2008. Occasionally, Baku TV Towers lighting is changed to specific, unique arrangements for special events, some annual events are cause for the tower to be specially lit. Such as alternating sections of the tower were lit to blue, red, the tower has also had a variety of special lighting arrangements for New Year since 2004. List of towers http, //www. emporis. com/building/azeritvtower-baku-azerbaijan Azeri TV Tower at Structurae http, //skyscraperpage. com/diagrams/. buildingID=2284
30.
Flame Towers
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Flame Towers is the tallest skyscraper in Baku, Azerbaijan with a height of 190 m. The buildings consist of apartments, a hotel and office blocks, the estimated cost of Flame Towers is around US$350 million. Construction began in 2007, with completion in 2012, HOK was the architect for the project, DIA Holdings served as the design-build contractor, and Hill International provided project management. The Flame Towers consist of three buildings, south, east and west, on 5 June 2014, Lamborghini opened a branch in Azerbaijan for the first time. Its dealership is located on the floor of the East tower of the Flame Towers. The Flame Towers are completely covered with the LED screens that display the movement of a visible from the farthest points of the city. The building was featured in Extreme Engineering, a television series that airs on the Discovery Channel. The episode called Azerbaijans Amazing Transformation was broadcast on 22 April 2011 as part of Season 9, the Flame Towers also appeared prominently in trailers before many entries for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 hosted in Baku. The towers are also a prominent landmark in Battlefield 4, with the first level of the single player campaign taking place in Baku, additionally, the towers were shown frequently during coverage of the initial Formula 1 European Grand Prix held in Baku
31.
Bibi-Heybat Mosque
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The Bibi-Heybat Mosque is a historical mosque in Baku, Azerbaijan. The Bibi-Heybat Mosque includes the tomb of Ukeyma Khanum, and today is the center for the Muslims of the region. It is locally known as the mosque of Fatima, which is what Alexandre Dumas called it when he described the mosque during his visit in the 1840s. The mosque was built over the tomb of the daughter of the seventh Shiite Imam - Musa al-Kazim, based on the writings on the south wall of a mosque, historians attribute the construction by the end of the 13th century. Arabic inscription on the wall reads, The work Mahmud ibn Saad. Haji Sheikh Sharif was among many Muslims, buried near the mosque, he arrived in Baku to spread Sufism, in 1911, the patron of Baku, Alasgar Agha Dadashov with architect Haji Najaf constructed a new building of the mosque. Also, the reconstruction of the tomb and the old mosque took a cubic form, after the establishment of Soviet power in Azerbaijan in 1920, the Bolsheviks began lashing out against religion. Bibi-Heybat Mosque, along with the Bakus Russian Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, the mosque was blown up in 1934 as result of the Soviet anti-religious campaign. In 1994, after Azerbaijan gained its independence, then president Heydar Aliyev ordered the construction of a new building for Bibi-Heybat Mosque at the place where it was destroyed. The layout and size of the complex were restored in 1980 on the basis of photographs taken shortly before the explosion, a dedication ceremony, attended by President Heydar Aliyev, was held on July 11,1997. In May 1999, the inauguration of the new mosque was held, while a monument to Shirvanshakh Farruhzade, the mosque was reconstructed and enlarged by the Presidential decree in 2005. New halls have been constructed to insure the convenience of pilgrims, the old mosque was situated in the southern part of the tomb, while there was a 20 meter high minaret in the west part of the mosque. Later a crypt and two niches were added to the mosque to the south of the minaret, on the niches there were inscriptions containing the name of Fatali Khan, whose tombstone marble slab is now in the Azerbaijan State Museum of History. From 1305 to 1313, Mahmud Ibn Saad built the mosques minarets, the top of the thread and stalactites, raised by a small pillar, surmounted by a semicircular dome of Rebrov. Railing minarets were patterned with stone grill, graphic studies showed that the height of the minaret was about 22 m. The rich interior of the complex was decorated with ornaments, the inside of mosque included an oblong rectangular room with a lancet arch. Under the dome, there were chandelier-candlestick, and a hook on which it hung was surrounded by stained glass, on the north side of the minaret and the mosque immediately adjoining the tomb, there was an inscription which was discovered by Johannes Albrecht Bernhard Dorn. From the inscription it was clear that this mausoleum was built in 1619 and interred here by Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Bin Abid, the modern restored mosque is a classic example of the Shirvan architectural school
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Muhammad Mosque
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Muhammad Mosque or Siniggala Mosque is the mosque built in the 11th century in Old City, Baku. The mosque is known as Siniggala, for the name of its minaret – Siniggala. Russian warships began to bomb the city after the refusal to surrender, one of the Russian shells hit the minaret of Muhammad Mosque and damaged it. A stormy wind blew the Russian ships further out to sea. The population of the city interpreted the wind as a scourge sent to the occupants. From that time until the middle of the 19th century, the minaret of the mosque wasn’t reconstructed and it remained a symbol of the persistence and courage of the defendants of the tower. It is the first building in Azerbaijan, which is related to Islam, according to Arabic inscription which was saved in front of doorway of northern wall of the mosque, it was built by ustad-rais Muhammad the son of Abu Bakr in 471 of Hijra. It means that the architect was not only a master-ustad, minaret adjoins new mosque, which was constructed on the basis of the older one’s plan. Trunk of the minaret is strong and slightly thinning and it is constructed from carefully drafted stone. Coarse and flat stalactites of tabling retain sherefe – muezzin’s balcony enclosed by stone plates, a ribbed dome completes the trunk of minaret. Narrow winding stairs are winded within the trunk, ligature with Koranic inscription was traced under the tabling with archaic kufi alphabet. Media related to Muhammad Mosque at Wikimedia Commons
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Mosque of the Martyrs
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The Mosque of the Martyrs, also popularly known as the Turkish Mosque, is a mosque in Baku, Azerbaijan, near the Martyrs Lane. The mosque was built in the beginning of the 1990s with assistance of the Turkish government, the mosque currently is used as an official residence of religious attaché of the Turkish embassy. The mosque has been under construction since 2009, the 154th ayah from Al-Baqara chapter of Quran is written on the façade of the mosque in Arabic and Turkish, “Do not say “Dead. ”About those, who died for the sake of Allah
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Taza Pir Mosque
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Taza Pir Mosque is a mosque in Baku, Azerbaijan. Its construction began in 1905 and was finished by 1914, after the death of the patron, the construction was suspended. Soon, however, it resumed with the support of her son and was completed in 1914, only 3 years after opening the mosque was closed in connection with the October Revolution in 1917. Over the years the mosque functioned as a cinema and a barn, akhund of the mosque is the Grand Mufti of the Caucasus Allahshukur Pashazadeh. Interior of the mosque has an area of 1400 square meters, the height of the dome and a half meters. The mihrab and dome of the made of marble, while decorative elements of the mosque. The dome, on which 6 times written La ilaha ilallah from Muslim proclamation of faith or Shahada, made from Qızılqaya stone
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Tuba Shahi Mosque
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Tuba Shahi Mosque – is located in Mardakan township of Baku. It is a monument of Azerbaijan and is a cultic construction. The mosque was constructed in the 15th century and was named in honor of the woman who ordered its construction, an inscription confirming its construction date was carved on the mosque. There is one inscription in the mosque, on the spiral stairs near the entry of the mosque which lead to the roof. The Quadrangular castle, a building of the Middle Ages, is located near the mosque
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Ateshgah of Baku
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The Baku Ateshgah, often called the Fire Temple of Baku is a castle-like religious temple in Surakhani, a suburb in Baku, Azerbaijan. Based on Persian and Indian inscriptions, the temple was used as a Hindu, Atash is the Persian word for fire. The pentagonal complex, which has a courtyard surrounded by cells for monks and it was abandoned after 1883 when oil and gas plants were established in the vicinity, ending the flow of natural gas to the temple and extinguishing the holy fire. The Baku Ateshgah was a pilgrimage and philosophical centre of Zoroastrians from Northwestern Indian Subcontinent, the four holy elements of their belief were, ateshi, badi, abi, and heki. The temple ceased to be a place of worship after 1883 with the installation of petroleum plants at Surakhany, the complex was turned into a museum in 1975. The annual number of visitors to the museum is 15,000, the Temple of Fire Ateshgah was nominated for List of World Heritage Sites, UNESCO in 1998 by Gulnara Mehmandarova — president of Azerbaijan Committee of International Council on Monuments and Sites. It was also featured on an episode of Globe Trekker and it was declared a state historical-architectural reserve by decree of the President of Azerbaijan on 19 December 2007. The Persian toponym Atashgah literally means home of fire, the Persian-origin term atesh means fire, and is a loanword in Azerbaijani. Gah derives from Middle Persian and means throne or bed, today, the fires in the complex are fed by gas piped in from Baku, and are only turned on for the benefit of visitors. Surakhani, the name of the town where the Ateshgah is located, likely means a region of holes, a historic alternative name for Azerbaijan as a whole has been Odlar Yurdu, Azeri for land of fires. “Surakhany” in Tati means “hole with the fountain”, armenian historian Ghevond, describing the invasion of the Khazars in the Caucasian Albania in 730 AD, mentioned area “Atshi-Baguan”. Sarah Ashurbeyli notes that the “Atsh” is distorted “Atesh” and “Atshi-Baguan” means “Fires of Baguan” referring to Baku, word “Baguan” comes from the word “Baga” which means “God” in Old Persian. And Bhagawan also means God in Sanskrit, “Seven holes with eternal fires” were mentioned by German traveler Engelbert Kaempfer who visited Surakhani in 1683. Estakhri mentioned that not far from Baku lived fire worshippers and this was confirmed by Movses Daskhurantsi in his reference of the province of Bhagavan. In the 18th century Atashgah was visited by Zoroastrians, the 1158 year corresponds to 1745 AD. Bovan is the village near Esfahan, the word Badak is a diminutive of Bad-Kubeh. At the end of the reference is the constellation of Sombole /Virgo, in the name of the month the master mistakenly shifted the “l” and “h” at the end of the word. According to Zoroastrian calendar Qadimi New Year in 1745 AD was in August, interesting information about Zoroastrianism in Baku is given by D. Shapiro in A Karaite from Wolhynia meets a Zoroastrian from Baku
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Holy Myrrhbearers Cathedral
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Holy Myrrhbearers Cathedral is a Russian Orthodox cathedral in Baku, Azerbaijan. The church is dedicated to the Holy Myrrhbearers, who are commemorated on the second Sunday after Pascha, the building was erected in 1909 through personal donations. In 1920, it was one of the first places of worship to be closed down as a result of Sovietization. It was used first as a warehouse and later as a gymnasium, during the Black January of 1990, it was hit by missiles fired by the Soviet troops, and the building was severely damaged. In 1991, the building was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church, with the financial aid provided by the Azerbaijani-born Russian entrepreneur Aydin Gurbanov, the building was fully restored by 2000. On 27 May 2001, Patriarch Alexius II elevated the status to that of a cathedral. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Baku Church of Michael Archangel, Baku The Holy Myrrhbearers Cathedral in Baku, eparchy of Baku and the Caspian region
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Armenian Church, Baku
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Saint Gregory the Illuminator Church, is a former Armenian Apostolic church near Fountains Square in central Baku, Azerbaijan. Completed in 1869 it was one of the two Armenian churches in Baku to survive the Soviet anti-religious campaign and it is the only Armenian monument to stand in Baku. The church was built between 1863 and 1869, in 1920 it became the cathedral of the Armenian Apostolic Diocese of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. It survived through the Soviet state atheist policies of the 1920s and 1930s when all, the large Armenian population of Baku—around 200,000 in the mid-1980s—was targeted in a January 1990 pogrom in the context of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The citys Armenian population was forced to flee, serious damage to the church was caused by an arson attack on December 25,1989, but it remained standing. He also wrote that it remains the only visible Armenian monument in Baku, jason Thomson wrote in 2005 that it was transformed into a billiard hall and tea house. The library of the church consisting of 5,000 books, in 2002 the church was transferred to the Presidential Library, which is located nearby, and now houses its archive. In 2006 Azerbaijani Minister of Culture Abulfas Garayev stated that converting the church into a library is purposeful because there are not many Armenian Christians in Azerbaijan, there have been proposals about reopening it as a church. In April 2010 Catholicos Karekin II, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, visited the church and prayed and he expressed hope that the church will eventually reopen its doors to believers. It was the first time since 1990 that prayer was heard at the church, in April 2012 the Armenian delegation participating at a Euronest Parliamentary Assembly meeting in Baku visited the church. Black Garden, Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War, New York, New York University Press. Stepanyan, G. S. Համառոտ ակնարկ Բաքվի Սբ
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Church of the Saviour, Baku
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The Church of the Saviour is a Lutheran church in Baku, Azerbaijan, built with donations by parishioner Adolf Eichler and consecrated on March 14,1899. It is now a Ministry of Culture and Tourism concert hall, the Gothic-style church features a portal crowned with a decorated pediment. Nevertheless, Pastor Paul Hamburg and seven members of the local Lutheran community were executed by firing squad on November 1,1937. The land parcel of 1400 square sazhens for the church was assigned by the City Duma on January 30,1885, local residents asked Eichler to make the church similar to one in Helenendorf, but he instead used his own unique style. The cornerstone-laying ceremony was held on Sunday, March 21,1896 with the Baku governor Lileyev, emmanuel Nobel, his stepmother and Ludvig Nobels second wife also attended the ceremony. The churchs name was announced at that moment, on June 24,1898, a thirteen-pud gilded cross was raised atop the church. In early 1899 a bell and an organ were installed, the consecration ceremony gathered over one thousand people. On April 23,1900 the church housed its first organ concert, on December 1,1996, the Nobel family remembrance evening was held in the church. In 2001 the church was closed for renovation work
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Church of the Immaculate Conception, Baku
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The Church of the Virgin Mary’s Immaculate Conception is a Roman Catholic church in Baku, Azerbaijan. The original church - The Church of the Blessed Virgin Marys Immaculate Conception operated from 1915 to 1931, in 2006, a new Catholic church bearing the same name was rebuilt in a different spot of Baku. On 29 April 2007 the new church was consecrated by Apostolic Nuncio in Transcaucasia Monsignor Claudio Gugerotti, bakus Catholic community was recognized as a separate parish in 1882, thus seceding from the Tetritsqaro Catholic parish. Even though the permission was given in 1894, due to money shortage, the only financial source were donations from the congregation, which consisted mostly of middle- and low-income families. Civil engineer Józef Płoszko and general contractor Haji Gasimov were in charge of the project, the church was built in the Neo Gothic architectural style. As a result of the Soviet Unions anti-religious campaign, in 1931 the Church of the Virgin Mary’s Immaculate Conception was destroyed, in 1937, its only senior priest Stefan Demurov was sent to a labour camp, where he died a year later. The site is now occupied by the Shahriyar Club, in 1997, the Catholic community of Baku was re-established. After Pope John Paul IIs visit to Azerbaijan in 2002, it was granted land to build a new church, the cornerstone of the new church was blessed by John Paul II. The new Church of the Virgin Mary’s Immaculate Conception was built in 2006, the style of the building will be New Gothic and will in some ways recall the facade of the original church. The church was designed to have a center and a residency for priests. The statue of the Virgin Mary by local sculptors was set up over the entrance of the Church which has 200 benches, the church bells were a present from Lech Kaczyński, then President of Poland. On 29 April 2007 the Apostolic Nuncio in Transcaucasia Monsignor Claudio Gugerotti administered the rite of consecration of the Church, the church was then also dedicated on Sunday, March 7th,2008 by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. Roman Catholic Marian churches Roman Catholicism in Azerbaijan Catholic Church in Azerbaijan, Retrieved 2014-04-23
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Bay of Baku
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Bay of Baku is a natural harbor of the Baku port and local yacht club, on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula and on the western shore of the Caspian Sea. It has an area of 50 km² and a coastline of 20 km, the bay is bordered by Sultan Cape in the east, Shikh Cape on the south-west and the islands of Qum, Dash Zira and Boyuk Zira in the south and south-east. These islands are part of the Baku Archipelago which lies mostly within the bay and these characteristics make it an ideal place for a harbor. There lies Baku Boulevard on the seashore, during severe storms with high winds, the height of the waves in the bay can reach 1–5 m. From the 1st century AD till the 7th century, Baku bay was dry, in Ptolemy’s map Baku was described far from the sea. After the 7th century began the rising of water level of the Caspian Sea till the 9th century, severe changes happened at the end of the 8th century, when the Caspian Sea raised up to more than ten meters. A major earthquake occurred in 1306, the Sabayil Castle, built on an island in the Bay of Baku, was submerged and remained under water for several centuries and it was only in the early 18th century, when the Caspian Sea retreated, that the island resurfaced. At that time the sea was waving near foot of the Maiden Tower, which confirms a legend about a girl, at that time Sabayil Castle, which was built on the rock in Baku bay, was totally located under water. During the next 600 years level of the sea was hesitatingly stood high till the beginning of the 20th century, according to a statement of a representative of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources there are a lot of reasons of pollution of Baku bay. Wastes from industrial, dwelling and domestic objects located on the seashore and also exploitation of vessels, oil, works on investigation of depth of Baku bay began after 1996, and later works on extraction of metallic constructions and sunk vessels from water were began. In 2007-2009’s, large scale works on cleansing of the bay from sunk vessels, metallic constructions and non-exploited hydrotechnical constructions, in whole 4500 tons of scrap metal and approximately 412 tons of wooden wastes were extracted from the sea. Trade port is stretched along the northern and western shores of Baku bay, the port is fully re-equipped, all loading and unloading works in it are mechanized. There is a port for ferry quay in the part of Baku bay. There is discussion on the need of construction of a bridge through Baku bay and it is considered that length of the bridge over the sea, from Shikh to Zig is 14,5 km. Total length of the bridge, which will be connected with encircling highway is 26 km, the sea bridge will be constructed on high piers, for not impeding movement of vessels. It is planned to deliver the bridge until 2015, automobile highway through Baku bay will be paid. Construction works will last for 3,5 years, foreign companies plan to open a recreational center in Boyuk Zira and Pirallahi islands of Baku bay. In Azerbaijani newspapers is reported that a Turkish company which is preparing a project will hold the construction of the recreational center in Nargin Island
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Baku Archipelago
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The Baku Archipelago is a group of coastal islands close to Baku, Azerbaijan. The waters surrounding the islands are shallow, besides their Azeri name, most islands have a Russian name that originated in the first modern cartography of the Caspian Sea made by hydrographer Fedor I. The archipelago is made up of the islands, in addition to a few small sandbanks. Formerly this archipelago provided an ideal ecosystem for the Caspian seal, sturgeons are still found where the waters are not too polluted. Certain birds that visit Baku Bay, like ducks, herring gulls, and grebes find refuge in these islands that are uninhabited except for gas-extraction installations. There is a monitoring station for water pollution in the area located in Svinoy Island. Lately, tourism has been developing in the Baku Archipelago. The Boyuk Zira island, of the islands located on the offshore of Baku. The island will be divided into areas, a park, a residential area. The park will be fragmented from the areas, as its areas are subjected to strong winds. Baku is famous for its Old City, and to commemorate this, when it comes to religions, Azerbaijan is known as of the most tolerant countries in the world. A mosque, a church, and a synagogue are planned to be built. During the reign of the Soviet Union, Boyuk Zira has been known as a place where the Stalin’s prisoners were sent - to pay tribute to this, moreover, a mall, a school, and a clinic should be functioning on the island. Public events, such as summits, are projected to place on the island. To ensue these, different venues including clubs and entertainment events are planned to place on the other side of island. This project has interested a lot of investors, and a total of two to three billion manat has been set to implement this. The Khazar Islands are a development of artificial islands 25 km south of Baku. According to Avesta management a new Azerbaijan Tower will be 200 m higher than the current tallest building in the world, besides business buildings and hotels, the project also promises to provide houses in capacity of 800.000 for its residents. According to Avesta, the project is planned to be completed by the period between 2020-2025, list of islands of Azerbaijan General information Oil extraction in the Baku Bay area and its ecological impact Tourist town on Boyuk Zira island Khazar Islands
