Içərişəhər (Old City), Baku

March 11, 2025

Baku has been inhabitated for over 8,000 years. An important Caspian port on the silk road, the city's heyday was during the Shirvan period (c. 1,200 to 1,500 C.E.). I joined a free walking tour lead by Aynur (1). As we were setting out, I heard my name; it was Susanna from yesterday. Aynur asked her to join us. Susanna said "today" in Russian and "airplane" in English, I gathered she was leaving Baku today.

My inuition about the city's architecture had been correct. The city burst out of the historic walls in the late 1800s when a use was found for the oil abounding in this "land of fire." The oil millionaires brought in architects and builders from Europe during during the Belle Epoque era, bringing the style of Paris with them.

The rulers during the Shirvan period were the Shahs, and their Palace, simply named Sirvanshah, is in the center of 

Içərişəhər. Içərişəhər means inner city (2), but the area is called the old city by foreigners (3). We had a nice wall past the Palace, the Museum of Miniature books (4), mosques (5), and to the Maiden Tower. Dating from the the 1,200s or earlier, the tower was probably defensive in nature, also serving to guide ships into the harbor. The story goes that a young woman threw herself from the tower after her father refused to allow her to marry the man she loved.

After the tour, a rooftop tea house beckoned. I enjoyed a nice lunch, watching buildings disappear as fog rolled in off the Caspian. The view from the top of the Maiden tower was limited by the fog (6). The Shirvanshah Palace had reproductions of various historical artifacts which had been plundered by various conquerors and are now in foreign museums.

A nice walk along pedestrianized streets to the train station and the bus to the airport ended the day (7). Going through

security, they asked in response to the x-ray scan: 

"Do you have a Book?"

 "Yes" I replied (I had three).

"What book? It's big" (out of curiosity, not concern).

"Dickens"

"Ah"

On the plane, I had scored an exit row seat, and soon discovered why. The flight attendant approached and said (in English): "Do you understand what I'm saying?" Being probably the only native English speaker on the flight, I did understand and was able and willing to assist in the event of emergency (8).

(1) Her family is from Karabahk, occupied by Armenians from 1989 until February of last year. Given the sensitivity of the topic, I did not engage her on the issue.

(2) Almost immediately upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the country changed from the Cyrillic alphabet of their former Russian overlords to the Latin alphabet used in Turkey (a), (supplemented with some diacriticals, and ə, which is the schwa sound), as the Azerbaijani language is very close to Turkish (b).

(a) Adopted upon the creation of the modern Turkish state after the fall of the Ottoman empire in the wake of World War I. The Ottoman empire had used the Arabic script. I understand that neither the Arabic nor Latin alphabets are particularly well suited to the Turkish language.

(b) Aynur has been to Istanbul a number of times "We don't even need a passport," and "We can understand Turkish," the languages are so close, and they watch a lot of Turkish TV.

(3) Indians are frequently visitors to Baku. The city feels quite European and has all the high-end shops, but is easier and cheaper to get to (e.g., simple e-visa), and to stay in than Europe.

(4) I was completely unaware that such miniature books existed. The wife of one of the oil men brought these back from her travels.

(5) Outside the Juma Mosque, I asked Aynur if she were fasting for Ramadan. "No, people here at not very religious." She was wearing a head scarf because she "was cold."

(6) Descending the narrow stone stairways, a scrum of boys from a school field trip tried to push past me, while the teachers tried to corral them out of the way.

(7) At dinner in a nice basement taverna, I fell into conversation with Pete from Thailand, who had just arrived to Baku. Trying to pay for dinner, his card did more work. This happened to me about 40% of the time here (c). He was quite stressed, as he did have any local currency. Covering his meal myself (all of $10; my card worked), I told him to pay it forward, a concept with which he was unfamiliar.

(c) I had to pay cash at the hotel, which I do not believe I have done this century.

(8) English is the official language of aviation. On this Azerbaijan Airlines flight, the pilot and flight attendants (all Azerbaijanis) communicated with each other in English. Aviation language around the world is standardized (e.g., "prepare doors for arrival, cross check.")

Near Shirvanshah Palace

Italian-designed fountain 

Baku Old city

At Juma Mosque

In Baku 

Fog rolling in from the Caspian

They know how to serve tea properly

Maiden tower entrance and view

Always a good combination

In the Shirvanshah Palace

The ubiqutous president, Heydar Aliyev

Behind Shirvanshah Palace

Two lions flanking a bull is the symbol of the city

Play of fog and sunlight on the flame towers of Baku

Late day

Karabahk is Azerbaijan

Near the train/bus station

The highest village in Europe (probably)

March 10, 2025

The highest village in Europe is Khinaliq, Azerbaijan, in the Caucasus at 7,500 meters (1). An organized tour (2) set out early toward the mountains. There were eleven guests packed into the minibus; Russian speakers to the front, English speakers to the rear (3).

After stopping for supplies, we headed north to Candy Cane Mountain. This sounded like an amusement park, but is actually a distinctive geological formation with undulating red and white stripes on the hillsides. Three large coaches disgorged a group of Indian tourists, and our guide, Nazir, called us back to beat them to the bathrooms at the next stop.

After lunch at the forest in Quba, we began the ascent up the Caucasus. Until quite recently, guests had to switch to Lada SUVs for the ascent. Due to recent snow melt, we continued on in the minibus. The group stopped at a narrow canyon, a mountain lookout and a Monument to the eagles, the symbol of the Caucasus. One was spotted soaring through the canyon. Before the road was built in 2006, the Khinaliq villagers had to travel multiple days by horse to stock up on supplies in Quba.

As we ascended, one of the Russian guests began singing Russian folk songs, and encouraged the other passengers to do the same. We all clapped along as songs were sung in Russian, Spanish, Hindu, and Cantonese. I demurred. The Russian woman said "Дружба Народна," (druzhba narodna) and asked the guide to translate: "friendship of the nations."

At Khinaliq, the guide discussed the summer sheep pastures here (4), and difficult life of the inhabitants: "The girls want to marry someone who will take them away from the village." Poking about for a half hour or so, I could understand why. One girl was hand washing clothes in an open trough, while dung was drying on a wall for winter fuel here at 2,500 meters, well above tree line.

For the return ride, the guide rode in the front seat, opening up a seat in the middle row, which I grabbed (5). Now in the row with the singing Russian woman, she began to chat, asking the (roughly) 30 year old Russian woman next to her, Yevgenia ("call me Jane") to help with translation. They were amused at the three words I know in Russian: please, thank you, and ice cream.

Susanna is from Yaroslav and loves to sing and dance. Now 61, she has retired from her job as a school teacher and librarian. She high-fived me when she heard I was the same age. She shared pictures of her son, daughter, granddaughter, and (mostly) herself. I showed a picture of my wife (7); her reaction was two-fold (a) that beautiful young woman ("so fit") is really your wife? and (b) I have "Компромат" (6), a picture she had taken earlier with her arms around me, which she jokingly threatened to send to my wife. Yevgenia showed multiple pictures of her dog (Mr. Happy) before eventually sharing a video of a fishing trip with her boyfriend to the Russian Arctic.

The three of us played a game in which a city anywhere in the world was named, and the next person had to name a city beginning with the last letter of the previous city. There are a lot of obscure Russian cities that start or end with K (8); Suzanna came up with Kansas City. Yevgenia looked at me and said: "Are you getting tired of us?" I was not. They were enjoying practicing their English; Yevgenia is in the tourist trade in St. Petersburg, and few foreign tourists have visited recently due to the Ukraine war.

Stopping on the road back to Baku, nobody needed the restroom. No luck pressing on to Baku however; it had been over an hour since the guide had smoked, and he was suffering nicotine withdrawal. Susanna quickly hopped out to join him. Back at Baku about 12 hours after we left, most of that time spent in the minibus (9). The scenery and agreeable company made for a good day. 

(1) A village in Russia a few miles from Khinaliq also claims the title, as does a settlement in Georgia. While Georgia's is undisputably the highest, it only has one inhabitant, so it's hard to describe as a village. All agree the highest village in Europe is somewhere in the Caucacian Mountains. About 1/3 of northern Azerbaijan is in Europe, with the south in Asia.

(2) Organized tours are not normally my thing, but useful now as the weather and road conditions in the mountains are still unstable.

(3) The English group was a Spanish Couple, an Indian couple, one guy from China and myself.

(4) Winter pasture is near Candy Cane Mountain.

(5) Sitting in the last row of a stuffy minibus bouncing down muddy roads was not the best thing for my stomach.

(6) A Russian phrase for compromising material than can be used for blackmail.

(7) They seemed surprised I was married, probably due to my physical appearance, but perhaps because I was travelling alone.

(8) I drew a blank after Kinshasha and Kampala, eventually coming up with Kallinigrad.

(9) All day in a minibus reminds me why I prefer the train.

Candy Cane Mountian

Lunch of the forest of Quba

The slot canyon

Eagle Monument

Views along the way. 

The large number of airplane con trails attests to the many planes enroute from Asia to Europe avoiding Russian airspace (just a few miles north). The Caucasus are a choke point in minimizing the distance.

At Khinaliq

The ubiquitous Lada SUV

Atashgar Zoroastrian Fire Temple

March 9, 2025

An early morning flight from Abu Dhabi to Baku today (1) had a total of 40 passengers on a plane holding 222. The Atashgar Zoroastrian fire temple is near the airport, so a stop there on the way to the city seemed appropriate. 

Zoroastrianism was the religion of Persia (2) in the pre-Islamic period. The dualistic nature of the soul, the constant conflict within people of good and evil, and heaven and hell are said to have originated with the Zoroastrians. The western Caspian region has abundant oil and gas reserves, so keeping flames in the fire temples going was not a problem (3) (4).

The Fire Temple was a gathering site for Zoroastrians, Hindus, and Sikhs. Calligraphy on the walls is in both Sanskrit and Arabic. Originally dating to the BCE period, and destroyed after the Islamic conquest, the temple was rebuilt in the 1800s.

Baku's Architecture seems to have avoided the brutalist fate of other Soviet cities. Outside the old city, which is reminscent of the Balkans, the buildings seemed to date from the Belle Epoque period, and almost every balcony in the main Boulevard sported an Azerivaijan flag.

At dinner, I tried to order Borscht (5), but they were out. A woman directly hehind me said she had done the same. She asked if I would join her "I dont like to dine alone." Isabel is a digital nomad working for a Singapore PR firm. Rents are expensive there, so she just spent a month in Tblisi, and has recently come to spend a month in Baku, followed by a month in Uzbekistan. We had a convivial conversation comparing notes about the places we had been and how the trains work in Central Asia.

(1) I had flown from Giza to Abu Dhabi yesterday (a). The most interesting thing in Abu Dhabi was the life story of the reception clerk at the hotel. He's from Nepal, married and had his first daughter at age 15, then studied in Finland.

(a) Due to fog closing the roads leading to Sphinx Airport, the hotel shuttle tried to get around the delay, only to encounter road closures again. Bit of a scramble to make the flight.

(2) Known today as Iran, and Azerbaijan's neighbor to the south.

(3) Once known as the Land of Fire,  petroleum production is still the biggest industry in Azerbaijan (b). Numerous bobbing oil derricks are visible just outside the temple walls, and oil platforms abounded in the Caspian Sea on the plane's descent to Baku.

(b) Hitler's drive south to the Caspian oil fields in late 1942 set up the Battle of Stalingrad, generally considered to be the turning point in Europe during World War 2.

(4) The flame today is fed with natural gas piped onto the site.

(5) This is the former Soviet Union.

Late season snow on the mountains of Central Iran

Fire temple entrance

Carving of a cat, c. 1300

The central fire chamber

Southeast wall

Tapestry depicting Zoroastrian rituals

Hindu God Shiva projected onto wall

Sanscrit and Arabic

Raised platform to feed horses

The Central Fire pavillion

Museum of Azerbijan Literature, Baku

Poster at the Shakespeare Café advertising a 1924 performance of Hamlet

The walls of old Baku

Fog rolled in off the Caspian after dark

The Great Pyramid at Giza

March 7, 2025

Rising about 400 feet above the west bank of the Nile (1), the Giza Plateau was considered an appropriate burial place for the Pharoahs of the Egyptian Old Kingdom.The great pyramid of Giza c. 2,600 B.C.E., once stood 480 feet high on top of the plateau, now eroded to about 455 feet. It was the tallest structure in the world for 3,800 years (2). The internal structure of large granite blocks (exposed due to erosion of the limestone covering) was quarried on the east bank of the Nile and brought near to the site by Canal. How the 20 ton blocks were lifted to the site remains unknown. Recent excavations at a workers' living site suggest about 10,000 people were employed at the construction site.

I bought a ticket to venture inside the Great Pyramid, tomb of Khufu/Cheops. Being quite crowded, I waited outside for people to reëmerge (2). The first 100 yards or so were standing height before a stone-lined narrow passage, about 3.5 feet by 3.5 feet and angled upwards at 26°. An official at the bottom was (I thought) controlling traffic so people only went up or down, but not simultaneously; I was wrong. Crouching along the 130 foot passage, we were passed by people going down, and had to halt in a crouched position. As soon as the passage opened up, I turned around and headed back down, glad to get back to the warn sunshine and fresh air (3).

Visitors to the large pyramid complex are expected to have a guide (4). Walid was quite knowledgeable, even telling me detailed stories about distinctive art from the Ahknaten period, even though Ahknaten's Capital was much further south. The second largest pyramid at Giza is the tomb of Khafre, with smaller Pyramids for his three queens. 

The Sphinx (5) is at the historic entrance to the tomb complex, guarding the site. The base is made from granite blocks, while the (somewhat eroded) head was of limestone. A stone causeway leads from here up to the main Pyramid complex. At this location, the pharoahs were mummified. All of the organs were removed from the body, except the heart. The heart was weighed against a feather at the entrance to the afterlife. A light heart meant a good life had been lived, earning entrance to the afterlife.

After the pyramids, I thoroughly enjoyed the demonstration of papyrus making. The process consists simply of flattening the reeds and squeezing out the 3% sugar  The papyrus, having almost no sugar, can last for centuries, as there is nothing for the bacteria that destroys most paper to feed on. One of the disadvantages of a guide is that he brings you to his friends' shops; I was uninterested in the metal trinkets, the perfume, and the clothing store.

Back at the hotel, a lively conversation ensued about when to go to Cairo for a sail. The drive takes anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on traffic. After vigorous debate among the driver, guide, the hotel clerk, and someone on the phone, Kareem and I left straight away. 

After 45 minutes, we were at a dock on the east bank of the Nile. Captain Mahmoud took me out on his Felucca (The Golden Eagle) for a sunset sail. He brought aboard an Iftar (6) box; I was surprised when he handed the box to me for a meal (7), and when he called me over to the tiller as he hauled on the mainsail halyard. The steady Northwest wind required one tack to get back to the dock to the bank. Hopping off the bow, I handed Mahmoud a ten dollar tip, with which he was utterly delighted.

I had the car and driver for a few more hours, so we went to the Khan el-Khalili bazaar in Old Cairo, where there was quite a buzz on the Friday night during Ramadan. The warren of narrow streets was filled with a myriad of shops. One shop owner beckoned we with: "We have it," even though he had no idea what (if anything) I wanted. Kareem's English consisted of two words: yes and no.

The hotel roof has a good view of the Pyramids for the evening light show. The English narrator (8) tells the story of the Pharoahs, as their Pyramids are illuminated.

(1) West is where the sun sets, and hence symbolic of death.

(2) Lincoln Cathedral in England, opened in 1311 was said to have a spire 525 feet tall.

(2) A car and driver (Kareem) for 8 hours, plus four hours with my own personal guide (Walid), cost about what I make in an hour at home. I have found it quite common in less developed places that the driver and guide are not the same. We got a late start (about 1:00) due to the very late arrival of my flight and because Walid was attending mid-day Mosque services on Friday, the Muslim holy day.

(3) There were heavy rains and cold temperatures yesterday.

(4) The interior had only recently reopened after a hour closing at midday, and Friday is the busiest day anyways.

(5) No-one knows what the lion-body, human head structure was called at the time of its construction. Sphinx is from the (much later) Greek meaning to bind together.

(6) The name of the sunset meal when the Ramadan fast is ended.

(7) Rice, beef and spicy pickled carrots; yum.

(8) His voice sounded like a news reel announcer from the late 1940s extolling the plucky, freedom loving people battling the godless communists 

The Giza Pyramid complex, view from hotel

Khufu/Cheops pyramid (The Great Pyramid of Giza)

Panorama point

Pyramid of Khafre. The smaller Pyramids behind the camel are for his queens.

The Sphinx 

Shared taxis in Cairo are old VW busses, invariably with the engine cover up to keep the (air-cooled) engine from overheating.

Mario, the owner of the papyrus shop was too happy; I must have overpaid.

Sailing the Nile at sunset on a Felucca

Al-Azhar Mosque

Al Emam El Hussein Mosque, view from Khan el-Khalili bazaar 

Khafre Pyramid illuminated during evening show

A 2 hour flight from Luton Airport to Luton Airport

March 6, 2025

After an overnight flight to Heathrow, the London underground brought me to St. Pancras Station and a connection to the train to London Luton airport (1). The flight to Sphinx Airport in Egypt left on time at 2:10. Taking off into the westerly wind, we banked left over Luton Hoo Mansion (now a golf course hotel) (2).

There is a cadence to a flight, with a ding as the plane ascends through 10,000 feet, at which point the flight attendants get up. No ding, and the plane seemed to stop its climb. Soon, the pilot announced we would be returning to Luton due to a mechanical problem. However, because we had just set out for a 5 hour flight, we had to burn fuel to reduce weight. The landing gear soon came down (3) (4), causing quite a racket as we circled the Bedfordshire countryside for the next two hours (5). The flight attedant asked for an Arabic-speaking volunteer to explain over the PA what was happening. 

In a window seat, I was glad of a good book, as the first 7 times seeing the same towns passing below was sufficient. The plane landed where it had begun at 4:20, escorted by the airport fire brigade along the taxiways (6). We stopped at the maintenance hanger, and were shuttled by bus back to the terminal (7).

A replacement plane and crew (Hungarian) (8) were roused, and after just enough time for fast food, we embarked for a departure four hours late (9). Being sunset during Ramadan, many of the passengers had been fasting; a passenger in the second row was sharing his dates for the Iftar. Of the 222 passengers on the original flight, we lost 18 (10). Expecting arrival in time for a late dinner, I got to the hotel at 3:00 a.m. instead (11).

(1) London has five airports. I only went to the wrong one once.

(2) A "pile" as such grand (but difficult to maintain) houses are called in the UK.

(3) Substantially increasing the aerodynamic drag, increasing fuel consumption (as does flying at lower altitude) and thereby decreasing the time spent circling.

(4) I never had thought about it before, but the exit sign lights are linked to the landing gear, and they lighted up also, accompanied by dings.

(5) A passenger asked the pilot as we disembarked why we did not fly two hours toward Sphinx (a) and land (say) somewhere in Italy. The pilot responded (reasonably) that the airline had a large presence at Luton, which therefore had mechanics, spare parts, etc. I suspect there is also a prudential rule to keep the aircraft within X miles (or minutes) of an airport in case of a detected mechanical fault (b).

(a) A new airport closer to the Pyramids at Giza that opened last year to relieve crowding at nearby Cairo airport.

(b) I remember a few years ago a tempest in a teapot about a similar flight circling the Pacific off LAX, with breathless reports on cable news showing live shots of the plane.

(6) Just in case, and it gave the fire brigade something to do.

(7) Seeing three buses, one dazed passenger asked if they were all going to the same place!

(8) The airline is based in Hungary. At airports where airlines have a large presence, a standby crew is usually available against the advent of such a contingency. 

(9) One flight attendant came rushing up the stairs out of breath at our scheduled departure time.

(10) The woman diagonally behind me, who was quite stressed on the original flight, did not rejoin.

(11) EU & UK regulations entitle passengers to compensation for excessive delays. I applied for and received €600 in compensation for the delay of this flight (for which I paid < $50).

St Pancras Station

Back at the Luton, at the maintenance hanger