Baku

The oldest part of Baku is surrounded by stone walls.

Inside are narrow, winding alleys. A tall, round stone tower called the Maiden Tower stands there. A palace where rulers once lived is now a museum.

At the heart of Baku is Icherisheher, the old town, still surrounded by most of its stone walls. Inside, narrow alleys twist between very old buildings. The Maiden Tower, 27 meters tall, is the symbol of the city.

At the highest point of the old town stands the Palace of the Shirvanshahs, built from the 1100s to the 1400s by rulers called the Shirvan-shahs. Today it is a museum. Near the old walls, a park runs along the waterfront.

Icherisheher, the walled inner city, keeps much of its 12th-century walls, strengthened after the Russian conquest of 1806, and was inscribed by UNESCO in 2000 with the Shirvanshahs' Palace and the Maiden Tower. UNESCO describes a site inhabited since the Paleolithic, with evidence of Zoroastrian, Sassanian, Arabic, Persian, Shirvani, Ottoman and Russian presence.

The Maiden Tower, 27 m tall, is the old town's most ancient monument; Britannica dates it to the 12th century, while UNESCO notes some evidence for construction as early as the 7th–6th centuries BCE. The Shirvanshahs' Palace (12th–15th centuries), at the town's highest point, includes the Divankhana, the tomb of the astronomer Seyid Yahya Bakuvi and Murad's Gate; the minaret beside the Mohammed Mosque dates from 1078. Caravanserais, bathhouses and 18th–20th-century houses complete a district that is still a living neighborhood.

Baku has trains that run under the ground.

They opened a long time ago. Ships and tankers sail on the Caspian Sea. Pipelines carry oil far away.

Baku's subway, the Baku Metro, opened on November 6, 1967. Its first stretch was 10.1 kilometers long, with stations such as Icherisheher, next to the old town. More stations have opened over the years.

Baku is also a port. Tankers carry oil across the Caspian Sea, and pipelines carry it all the way to Batumi, a port on the Black Sea. An international airport links Baku with the rest of the world.

The Baku Metro opened on November 6, 1967, when the first five stations of a 10.1 km line began service; Khatai followed on February 22, 1968, and three more stations opened on November 6, 1972. Construction faced hard hydrogeological conditions, and the official history recalls tunnels flooding during work on Nizami station, which opened in 1976.

The bay gives Baku the best harbor on the Caspian. Oil leaves by pipeline to Batumi on the Black Sea, or by tanker across the Caspian and up the Volga River, and a network of pipelines links the drilling towns of the peninsula with local refineries. An international airport serves the city.

Strong winds can blow in Baku!

Summers are hot and dry. Winters are cool. Not much rain falls, so the land is dry.

Baku has hot, dry summers and cool winters. On a typical July day, the high is about 31 °C and the low about 22 °C. In January, highs average about 7 °C and lows about 2 °C.

Very little rain falls, only about 210 millimeters in a year, and July is the driest month of all. Baku's name may even come from Persian words meaning "blown upon by mountain winds."

World Meteorological Organization normals for 1971–1990 give mean daily maxima and minima of 6.6 °C and 2.1 °C in January and 30.6 °C and 22.2 °C in July. The monthly totals add up to only about 210 mm, from about 30 mm in November to about 2 mm in July, with only one rain day in an average July.

The Abşeron Peninsula protects the bay from violent northerly winds, and Britannica suggests the city's name may derive from the Persian bad kube, "blown upon by mountain winds." UNESCO notes that the rock art at nearby Gobustan records a time when the region's climate and plants were warmer and wetter than today.

Many people in Baku work with oil.

Others make machines, build ships or work in shops and offices. Older students go to universities. There is a park by the sea.

Oil is the heart of Baku's economy. Many people work in drilling, refining, or making equipment for the oil industry, and others build and repair ships, make electrical machines or process food.

Baku is also Azerbaijan's center for learning and culture. Baku State University was founded in 1919, and the city has museums such as the State Art Museum, several theaters, and the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences. The famous physicist Lev Landau, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1962, was born in Baku.

Petroleum is the basis of Baku's economy: most of the subordinate townships are drilling centers, many derricks stand in the gulf facing the city, and Baku is a large producer of oil-industry equipment. Metalworking, shipbuilding and repair, electrical machinery, chemicals, construction materials and food processing also contribute; most industrial plants lie at the city's eastern and southwestern ends.

Baku is a major cultural and educational center, with Baku State University (1919), Azerbaijan Technical University (1950), Khazar University (1991), an institute specializing in the oil industry and the research institutes of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences. Museums include the State Art Museum (1924), and the city has a number of theaters. Around the old town, modern streets climb the amphitheater of hills around the bay, and a park has been laid out along the waterfront. The physicist Lev Landau, 1962 Nobel laureate, was born here.