Azerbaijan sits at the intersection of Europe and Asia, bounded by Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, and the Caspian Sea (the world's largest landlocked body of water). It gave the world its first oil refinery (1846) and still floats much of its economy on petroleum revenue. The "Land of Fire" epithet references the natural gas seeps that burn eternally from the ground — Zoroastrianism was born here, in a landscape where fire emerged spontaneously from the earth.
Azerbaijan sits at the intersection of Europe and Asia, bounded by Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, and the Caspian Sea (the world's largest landlocked body of water). It gave the world its first oil refinery (1846) and still floats much of its economy on petroleum revenue. The "Land of Fire" epithet references the natural gas seeps that burn eternally from the ground — Zoroastrianism was born here, in a landscape where fire emerged spontaneously from the earth.
Baku, the capital, is a city of dramatic contrasts: the UNESCO-listed medieval İçərişəhər walled city sits below the Flame Towers (oil-funded 21st-century architecture that dominates the skyline). The Heydar Aliyev Centre (Zaha Hadid, 2012) is one of the most celebrated buildings of the century. Beyond the capital: the Silk Road city of Sheki, with its Palace of the Khans and extraordinary stained-glass windows; the fire-worshipping temple of Ateshgah; and the mud volcano fields near Gobustan where the ground bubbles with grey cold lava.
