Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan is a country in the Caucasus.

It is next to the Caspian Sea, a very big lake-like sea. Tall mountains stand in the north. Wide, dry plains spread out in the middle. The capital city is called Baku.

Azerbaijan is a country in the Caucasus region, between Russia to the north, Iran to the south, Armenia and Georgia to the west, and the Caspian Sea to the east. A separate part of the country, Naxçıvan, lies to the southwest.

Azerbaijan has a coast on the Caspian Sea, but the Caspian does not connect to the open ocean, so Azerbaijan is counted as a landlocked country. Its land ranges from high mountains to lowlands. The capital, Baku, has the best harbor on the Caspian. About 10.3 million people lived in Azerbaijan in the middle of 2026.

Azerbaijan sits on the southern flanks of the Caucasus: bounded by Russia to the north, the Caspian Sea to the east, Iran to the south, Armenia to the west and Georgia to the northwest. The exclave of Naxçıvan lies southwest of the main territory, between Armenia, Iran and Türkiye. Britannica notes that although Azerbaijan has a Caspian coastline, it is considered landlocked because neither it nor the Caspian connects to the open ocean.

Broken relief, varied drainage and climate, and sharp altitudinal zoning give a wide variety of landscapes: more than two-fifths of the territory is lowland, about half lies between 400 and 1,500 m, and a little more than a tenth is higher. The State Statistical Committee reported 10,273,450 residents on July 1, 2026, 54.3 percent of them urban. Azerbaijan was independent in 1918–20, became a Soviet republic and declared independence on August 30, 1991.

Baku is the biggest city in Azerbaijan.

Its old town has thick walls and a tall stone tower. Shaki is a town at the foot of green mountains. At Gobustan, people carved pictures into rocks long, long ago.

Baku, the capital and biggest city, stands on terraces sloping down to a bay of the Caspian Sea. Its old Inner City keeps much of its walls and the Maiden Tower from the 1100s and the Palace of the Shirvanshahs from the 1400s, and UNESCO lists it as a World Heritage Site. Ganja is the second-largest town and the main city of the interior.

Southwest of Baku, at Gobustan, more than 6,000 pictures carved into rocks record 40,000 years of rock art. In the north, the town of Shaki sits at the foot of the Greater Caucasus, with houses topped by high gabled roofs and merchant houses that show the wealth that silkworms and the silk-cocoon trade brought.

Baku, on the Abşeron Peninsula, is the largest city and, Britannica says, the most important industrial city in Transcaucasia, set on natural terraces above a gulf of the Caspian, with a 3.2 km seaside boulevard. UNESCO's Walled City of Baku (2000) was built on a site inhabited since the Paleolithic and shows Sasanian, Arabic, Persian, Shirvani, Ottoman and Russian presence; the Inner City (İçərişəhər) keeps much of its 12th-century walls, the 12th-century Maiden Tower stands over structures of the 7th–6th centuries BCE, and the 15th-century Shirvanshahs' Palace is a highlight of Azerbaijani architecture. Gäncä (Ganja) is the second town.

Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape (2007) covers three areas of a boulder plateau in the semi-desert, with more than 6,000 rock engravings spanning 40,000 years, plus caves, settlements and burials from the Upper Paleolithic to the Middle Ages. The historic center of Sheki (2019), divided by the Gurjana River, was rebuilt after 18th-century mudflows; its Khan Palace and merchant houses reflect the wealth of silkworm breeding and the silk-cocoon trade from the late 18th to the 19th century.

The tallest mountains are in the north.

The highest is called Bazardüzü. In the middle there are wide, flat lowlands. Canals carry river water to the farms there. Summers in the lowlands are very hot.

The Greater Caucasus Mountains run along Azerbaijan's northern border. The highest peak, Bazardüzü, is 4,466 meters tall. Other mountain ranges rise in the southwest and the southeast. In the middle lies the Kura-Aras Lowland, named after the Kura River and the Aras River, where canals carry water to farms.

The weather changes a lot from place to place. Central and eastern Azerbaijan have mild winters and long, very hot summers, with temperatures up to 43 °C. The southeast is the wettest part, with 1,200 to 1,400 millimeters of rain a year. High in the mountains, snow can close the passes for three or four months.

The highest peaks, Bazardüzü (4,466 m), Shakhdag and Tufan, belong to the Greater Caucasus, whose crest forms part of the northern boundary; the region is highly seismic. The Lesser Caucasus spurs in the southwest rise to nearly 4,000 m and include the Karabakh Upland and Lake Geygyol, at 1,566 m. In the southeast, the Talysh Mountains reach 2,492 m above the Länkäran Lowland. The Kura-Aras Lowland is irrigated by canals such as the 172 km Upper Karabakh Canal, which links the Aras to the Mingäçevir Reservoir (606 km²) and irrigates more than 100,000 ha.

Central and eastern Azerbaijan have a dry subtropical climate, with summers averaging about 27 °C and reaching 43 °C; the southeast is humid subtropical, with 1,200–1,400 mm of precipitation, mostly in the cold months; Naxçıvan is dry continental. Steppe and semidesert cover the lowlands, beech, oak and pine forests the mountain slopes, with alpine meadows above. UNESCO's Hyrcanian Forests, a forested massif along the Caspian in Azerbaijan and Iran dating back 25 to 50 million years, include the Dangyaband and İstisuchay valley areas in Azerbaijan.

Gazelles live in the lowlands.

Brown bears and lynx live in the mountains. Many birds visit the coast in the mild winters. Leopards live in the mountains too, but they are very rare.

In the lowlands live gazelles, jackals and hyenas, along with many reptiles and rodents. The mountains are home to Caucasian deer, roe deer, wild boars, brown bears, lynx, chamois and European bison. Leopards live there too, but they are rare.

Mild winters bring many birds to the Caspian coast. Nature reserves give flamingos, swans, pelicans, herons, egrets, sandpipers and partridges a place to rest. In the Hyrcanian Forests, which Azerbaijan shares with Iran, UNESCO has recorded 180 kinds of forest birds and 58 kinds of mammals, including leopards, wolves and brown bears.

Britannica lists gazelles, jackals and hyenas, with reptiles and rodents, in the lowlands; Caucasian deer, roe deer, wild boar, brown bear, lynx, European bison (wisent), chamois and the rare leopard in the mountains. Mild winters draw many birds to the Caspian coast, and nature reserves shelter flamingos, swans, pelicans, herons, egrets, sandpipers and partridges.

UNESCO's Hyrcanian Forests property, which stretches along the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan and Iran, records more than 3,200 vascular plant species, 180 species of birds typical of broad-leaved temperate forest and 58 mammal species, with complete ecosystems that include top predators such as the leopard, wolf and brown bear; some of its trees are 300–400 years old and possibly up to 500. The surface of the Caspian Sea lies about 28 m below sea level, and Britannica names caviar and fine horses among Azerbaijan's distinctive traditional exports.

About 10.3 million people live in Azerbaijan.

Most people speak Azerbaijani. Many families weave carpets by hand. Some musicians make up songs as they play.

About 10.3 million people lived in Azerbaijan in 2026, and slightly more than half live in towns and cities. About nine in ten people are Azerbaijanis, who speak Azerbaijani, a Turkic language. Smaller groups include Lezgians, Russians and the Talysh of the southeast. Most people in Azerbaijan are Muslims.

Carpet weaving is a family tradition: men shear the sheep, women spin and dye the yarn, and in winter girls learn to weave from their mothers and grandmothers. Music matters too. Ashugs make up songs while playing a stringed instrument called a kobuz, and mugham is a traditional kind of music full of improvisation.

The State Statistical Committee reported 10,273,450 people on July 1, 2026, 54.3 percent urban. Turkic-speaking Azerbaijanis make up about nine-tenths of the population, with small Lezgian (Caucasian-speaking), Russian and Armenian communities, and the Talysh, an Iranian people, form the bulk of the population around Länkäran and Masallı. Azerbaijani belongs to the West Oghuz group of the Turkic languages; its literary tradition dates to the 15th century, it was written in Arabic script until the 20th century, in Cyrillic from 1939, and in the Roman alphabet since 1992. More than three-fifths of the population is Shi'i Muslim and about a third Sunni. More than a fifth of people are under 15.

UNESCO inscribed Azerbaijani carpet weaving in 2010: a family tradition passed on orally and by practice, with patterns characteristic of many carpet regions and wool, cotton or silk dyed with natural dyes. The Azerbaijani mugham, a classical form with a large degree of improvisation, draws on bard melodies and was traditionally performed at wedding feasts (toy) and gatherings of connoisseurs (majles); ashugs improvise songs to the kobuz.