Old City Tour (Baku, Azerbaijan)

In ancient times, Baku was one of the most densely populated cities not only in the Southern Caucasus, but in the whole of the Middle East! Icherisheher – the old town at the heart of the city – now acts as something of an open-air museum, preserving ancient history, cultural heritage and architecture to present day. Centuries ago, crowded market squares, streets and large estates emerged in Icherisheher; the Old City’s Maiden Tower and the Palace of Shirvanshahs are even included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Icherisheher is a home to a wide variety of handicrafts, such as pottery, metal and glassware. With its triple row of fortress walls and Maiden Tower, the city was built to defend with the help of its labyrinth of lanes. Enemy troops who stormed Icherisheher did not survive long before getting lost in this real-life stone trap. There’s a certain poetry to breathing new life into the Old City’s narrow alleyways have survived and evolved over all these years. Within these walls we can catch a glimpse of what life was like through the eyes of our ancestors.

The palace was the former residence of the rulers of the Shirvanshahs. It is a complex where, in addition to the palace itself, can also be found a courtyard of the Diwankhana, the courthouse, the Shirvanshahs’ burial vault, the palace mosque of 1441 with its minaret, the bathhouse and the mausoleum of the court scholar, Sayid Yahya Bakuvi. The palace complex was built in the period from the XIII to the XVI century. On the palace itself, no inscriptions have survived. Therefore, the time of its construction is determined by the dates on the inscriptions on various architectural monuments, which relate to the palace complex. In 1964, the palace complex was declared a museum-preserve. In 2000, a unique architectural and cultural ensemble, along with the fortified walls enclosed by the historic part of the city and the Maiden Tower, was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The Shirvanshahs Palace is considered one of the pearls of the architecture of Azerbaijan.

Maiden Tower is a symbol of Baku. This is a unique 8-floor structure with majestic 4-5 meter thick walls built on a rocky promontory overlooking the Caspian Sea. Maiden Tower has been included in UNESCO’s World Heritage List. There is an amazing view of the city and the Caspian Sea from the top of the Tower.

A caravanserai is known as a small or "Khan caravanserai" was built in late XV –early XVI. It is square in plan. It has a large quadrangle with truncated corners. It has a perimeter balcony. Behind the balcony are private premises. Along the north-south axis, there is a one-room through entrance connecting commercial streets. The decorative architecture of the courtyard is built on traditional forms – pointed arch balconies within a flat quadrangle frame. A simple –form cornice connects hall facades of the building along its perimeter. The Northern and southern entrances of the caravanserai are in the form of a portal. In the Middle Ages, the main entrance portal of the caravanserai was from the sea-side. The southern façade of the caravanserai was two-story and exhibits a magnificent fortification. In medieval times the commercial street side of the caravanserai consisted of shops that had no direct communication with the courtyard. It is believed that before functioning as a caravanserai the building comprised Djame Mosque and its medrese and the cells existed in its courtyard. The caravanserai is located in the main commercial street of the city and takes a key place in the urban system.

The Hamam (bath-house) was built in the XVIII by Haji Agha Mikayil from Shemakhy, on the south-west of the Icherisheher in one of the main streets, Kichik Qala street. The area where it is located is known in folk etymology a "bath keepers'" community (hamachilar mahalasi). The Hamam is entered from Kichik Qala street. The interior of the building is distinct among other Hamams for its large space (spaciousness). Cloakroom and bath-rooms are square-shaped. Due to the four central pillars, the premises form a large composition. The architectural composition of the Hamam is expressed with pointed arches, cupolas, domes divided by proportional tiers. Attractive volumes of domes dominating over the strong facade and stone made following the vernacular architectural traditions have formed the basis of the Hamam.