1 destination · 10 things to do

Azerbaijan

Baku is the Land of Fire's capital, a Caspian port where a walled medieval core sits beneath three flame-shaped glass towers and one of the most fluid buildings ever drawn. This guide books the city properly: the Old City of Icherisheher with its Maiden Tower and the Palace of the Shirvanshahs, the Flame Towers that light the skyline at night, Zaha Hadid's Heydar Aliyev Center, a seaside Boulevard walk and a street food tour through the centre. Beyond the city it covers the day trips that make Azerbaijan unlike anywhere else: Gobustan's rock art and bubbling mud volcanoes, the Zoroastrian-era Ateshgah fire temple and Yanar Dag, the hillside that has burned for centuries. Then it matches you to a hotel, from the Fairmont inside the Flame Towers to an Old City boutique inn and a budget-friendly ibis, because in Baku where you sleep decides whether you walk to the fortress walls or ride to the Boulevard.