阿塞拜疆玩乐指南

Baku, the capital and Caspian port, has a walled old town with the Maiden Tower and the Palace of the Shirvanshahs, both part of a UNESCO listing, beside a seafront promenade and the curving Flame Towers on the hill above. The Absheron Peninsula around it has the Ateshgah fire temple and Yanar Dag, a hillside where natural gas has burned for decades.

North-west of Baku, Shamakhi was once the capital of the old Shirvan state, and Qabala sits in forested foothills of the Greater Caucasus with waterfalls and walking paths. Ganja, the second city, is the home of the poet Nizami, and Lankaran in the south lies between the Caspian and the Talysh Mountains in a damp, green corner of the country. The Gobustan plateau has rock carvings and bubbling mud volcanoes.

Plov, the saffron-scented pilaf, comes with lamb and dried fruit, and qutab, thin pancakes filled with herbs or meat, are cooked on a griddle. Tea is served in small pear-shaped glasses with jam, and pakhlava, a local baklava, ends a meal. Baku is a windy city, and late spring and early autumn are the milder times to walk its streets.