One of the craziest natural wonders I’ve ever seen was in Azerbaijan. Azer-what-now?! Azerbaijan, yes. That was probably my exact reaction to one of the craziest country names I’d ever heard too. Azerbaijan is one of the three Caucus countries, the others are Georgia (the country) and Armenia. Azerbaijan was a delight to explore with its many little surprises. On my 16th birthday we slept on the waiting room floor at the border in Turkmenistan. The next day we caught a cargo ship across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan where we found beautiful big buildings, an old caravanserei converted into a hotel, intricately detailed palaces and 40,000 year old stone carvings! The undoubtable highlight was the mud volcanoes just outside of the capital city, Baku. I had imagined these volcanoes would be bubbling with hot mud, but strangely they are mounds of grey earth bubbling with cold, thick mud. An absolute wonder!
Caspian Sea voyage
Caspian Sea, leaving Turkmenistan
Baku Governments House, Baku
Our hotel in Baku though once the house of Mirzabekov brothers.
World Heritage/UNESCO site: Palace of the Shirvanshahs is the biggest monument of the Shirvan-Absheron branch of the Azerbaijan architecture, situated in the Inner City of Baku.
Palace of the Shirvanshahs
The building of The Municipality
World Heritage/UNESCO site: Maidens Tower, Giz Galasi, located in the Old City, Baku, in Azerbaijan, was built in the 12th century as part of the walled city.
The old walled city of Baku is a World Heritage/UNESCO site. Some of the old wall in Baku
Baku
Seki
Bus stop in Seki
Caravanserai where we stayed a couple nights. Seki
A 6th-century Caucasian Albanian church, Seki
The Palace of Shaki Khans which was a summer residence of Shaki Khans, still remains one of the most visible landmarks of Seki. Constructed in 1762 without a single nail is one of the most marvelous monuments of its epoch.
The Palace of Shaki
Sheepskin hats called Papakha – Seki
Mud volcano in Gobustan
World Heritage/UNESCO site: Azerbaijan is in the first place in the world for the amount of mud volcanoes
There are about 350 of 800 volcanoes of the world in Azerbaijani Republic.
World Heritage/UNESCO site: Gobustan National Park. The reserve has more than 6,000 rock engravings dating back between 5,000 – 40,000 years
Gobustan National Park
Stay tuned for more #FridayFotos. Next week is Belguim
Savannah Grace
View more photos of Azerbaijan here.
For more of my travel photography, check out my Instagram account! See you there!
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Categories: Savannah Grace
Tagged as: #FridayFotos, Adventure, Asia, Asia travel, AZERBAIJAN, Azerbaijan Photo Essay, Azerbaijan Photo travel, Azerbajian Friday Fotos, backpacking, Country Photo Essay, European Road TRip, Explore Europe, I Grew My Boobs in China, Photo essay, Round the World, Savannah Grace, sihpromatum, transcontinental country, world travel
Reblogged this on maggiethemom and commented:
Azerbaijan is so interesting. I loved the mud volcanos and UNESCO sites.
Beautifully awe inspiring. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. Cheers.
Thank you for your comment! So happy to hear you enjoyed the photos 🙂