Azerbaijan
Edited by:
Massimo Martini
Access
Azerbaijan can be reached from Italy mainly by air, with direct flights from Milan Malpensa and Rome Fiumicino to Baku Heydar Aliyev International Airport (IATA code: GYD), located about 25 km east of the centre of the capital. The travel time is about four to five hours. The airport is the country's main international hub and serves destinations in Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Russia. The country's other international airports are located in Ganja (the country's second airport), Nakhchivan - the capital of the exclave of the same name -, Lenkoran and Zagatala, the latter being relevant for access to the north-western mountain region. The most popular land border for overland entry is with Georgia, via the Sadakhlo-Bagratashen and Red Bridge crossings, accessible from Tbilisi. The border with Russia is accessible through the Samur crossing at Dagestan, while the border with Iran is operational at Astara on the Caspian Sea. The borders with Armenia are closed. The internal railway network is operated by the State Railways of Azerbaijan (ADY): the main line connects Baku to Ganja and continues to the Georgian border, while an international rail link reaches Tbilisi and Batumi in Georgia. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, opened in 2017, connects Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey in a single rail corridor. Internal public transport uses intercity buses and marshrutkas between the main cities and mountainous areas. Baku has had an active metro system since 1967, with two lines and twenty-six stations.
Introduction
Azerbaijan is the largest country in the South Caucasus, located between the Greater Caucasus to the north, the Caspian Sea to the east, the Talish Mountains to the south-east and the Lesser Caucasus to the west, in a position that makes it a hub between Europe, Russia, the Middle East and Central Asia. The territory has an extraordinary morphological variety: high mountain ranges with peaks over 4,000 metres alternate with vast alluvial plains, lake basins, semi-arid areas and a Caspian coastline over 800 km long. The country is crossed by the Kura River, the longest in the Caucasus, which runs through the entire central depression before flowing into the Caspian Sea. The Absheron peninsula, on which Baku is located, is known for its oil deposits and natural gas manifestations that have fuelled fire cults for millennia. Azerbaijan is a secular republic with a Shia Muslim majority, a Turkic reference language and a strong presence of ethnic minorities. It is the Caucasus country with the most significant oil production and has built its modern identity around the energy wealth of the Caspian subsoil, while preserving a complex cultural heritage that interweaves Turkish, Persian and Caucasian traditions.
Description
Azerbaijan's territory covers 86,600 km² and comprises two distinct mountain ranges that define its northern and western perimeter, and a vast central lowland. The Greater Caucasus occupies the northern edge, with the ridge marking the border with Russia: the highest peaks are concentrated in the eastern sector of the range, where the Bazardüzü reaches 4,466 m - the highest peak in the country - followed by the Shahdag (4,243 m) and the Tufandag (4,191 m), all in the Shahdag National Park. In contrast, the Lesser Caucasus runs along the south-western edge of the country, with peaks around 3,500 metres; in the south-eastern quadrant, the Talish Mountains, with peaks up to 2,492 metres, separate the country from Iran and host humid subtropical microclimates with over 1,400 mm of annual rainfall, unusual for the region. The Kura-Aras lowland occupies the heart of the country: the Kura River, more than 1,500 km long overall and 906 km in the Azerbaijani section, has its source in Turkey, crosses Georgia and flows from northwest to southeast before forming a delta in the Caspian; just before its mouth it receives the Aras, which marks the border with Iran for a long stretch. A fair portion of the lowland lies below sea level, in the Caspian depression, which reaches -28 metres. The country has more than 8,000 mud volcanoes, more than half of those registered in the world: the Gobustan Plain and the Absheron Peninsula are home to the most spectacular groups.
The traces of human presence in the Azerbaijani territory date back to the Upper Palaeolithic, some 15,000 years ago, as documented by the petroglyphs of the Gobustan State Reserve. The Bronze Age is attested in numerous settlements, including those at Mingachevir and Nakhchivan. In the 4th-3rd centuries BC, the Caucasian Albanians - an indigenous population distinct from the Albanians of southern Europe - founded an independent kingdom on the territory of present-day Azerbaijan, which remained so, albeit with ups and downs, until the Arab conquest in the 8th century. The territory was then subject to the rule of the Seljuks, Mongols and Persian Safavids, who made it a centre of Persian-language culture and literature. The poet Nizami Ganjavi, who lived in Ganja in the 12th century, is the most famous exponent of the literature produced in this territory: his Khamse - five epic and romantic poems - constitutes one of the masterpieces of medieval Oriental poetry and remains an identity reference for Azerbaijani culture. The 19th century brought the Russian conquest, sanctioned by the Treaty of Golestan (1813) and the Treaty of Turkmenchay (1828), which transferred the entire region to the Tsarist Empire. The discovery and industrial exploitation of oil in Baku, which began in the second half of the 19th century with contributions from the Nobel family and the Rothschild brothers, turned the city into one of the world economic centres at the dawn of the 20th century. In 1918, the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan was proclaimed, the first secular parliamentary republic in the Muslim world, which lasted until Soviet annexation in 1920. Independence was regained in 1991 with the dissolution of the USSR.
Azerbaijan's economy has been dominated by hydrocarbons: the country has significant oil and natural gas reserves in the Caspian Sea, exploited through the BTC (Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan) gas pipeline and the South Caucasus pipeline to Turkey and Europe. In recent years, the government has begun a partial diversification towards agriculture, tourism and services. Agriculture is practised in the irrigated plains of the Kura valley: pomegranates, figs, walnuts, cotton and silk - Sheki is traditionally one of the silk centres of the Caucasus - are among the historically most important productions. Wine culture has ancient roots in Azerbaijan, with vineyards documented in the Shamakhi region and in the Aras Valley.
Azerbaijani culture is marked by poetic and musical tradition, with the mugham - an improvisational musical genre of oriental origin, inscribed by UNESCO as an intangible heritage of humanity - at the centre of the country's artistic identity. Carpet craft, in the variants of Guba, Shirvan, Karabakh and Gazakh, is another historically relevant form of expression, with weaving techniques handed down from generation to generation. Azerbaijani cuisine is rich in Turkish and Persian influences: plov (rice with meat, dried fruit and spices), dolma, meat skewers and pomegranate dishes are the most characteristic preparations.
The country has two sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The Walled City of Baku - Icheri Sheher - with the Palace of the Shirvan Shahs and the 12th-century Tower of the Virgin, is the historic centre of the capital, a maze of alleys, caravanserais and mosques that preserves the memory of the medieval city on the shores of the Caspian. The Cultural Landscape of Gobustan Engraved Rocks, inscribed in 2007, collects more than 6,000 petroglyphs spread over three sites - Böyükdaş, Kiçikdaş and Cingirdağ - documenting the life, environment and beliefs of the inhabitants of the Eastern Caucasus over a chronological span from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Middle Ages. The fauna of the country includes the Caucasian leopard (Panthera pardus ciscaucasica), the noble deer (Cervus elaphus maral), the Caucasian ibex (Capra cylindricornis), the chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra), thebrown bear (Ursus arctos) and - in the Caspian wetlands - flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus), swans and migratory pelicans. The Shahdag National Park in the north-eastern Greater Caucasus protects the country's highest peaks and subalpine forests of beech (Fagus orientalis) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris). The Hirkan National Park in the southern Talish Mountains protects one of the last fragments of the wet Iircan forest, with the endemic Persian parrotia (Parrotia persica), known as the iron tree because of the hardness of its wood.
Hiking is mainly practised in the Greater North Caucasus regions, with the Shahdag National Park as a reference area: trails run through the valleys of Gusar and Khinalig, the highest village in Azerbaijan at more than 2,300 metres, inhabited by the Khinalug, an ethnic group with its own language and millenary traditions. The town of Quba is the starting point for excursions to the Shahdag area. To the south, the Hirkan National Park can only be reached on foot, via unmarked paths linking talysh villages in a dense, humid forest environment. The Shahdag ski resort has ski slopes and ski lifts, and is the country's main ski resort; the Tufandag ski resort, near Gabala, is a second winter destination with a cable car and accommodation facilities. In the summer season, these areas open up to alpine trekking and high-altitude hiking.
Mountaineering in the Greater Azerbaijani Caucasus is concentrated on the peaks of the Shahdag National Park: Bazardüzü (4,466 m), Shahdag (4,243 m) and Tufandag (4,191 m) attract international climbers who use local guides and organised expeditions. Bazardüzü, the highest peak in the country, lies right on the border with Russian Dagestan and can be reached from the north from the Russian side or from the south through the Azerbaijani valleys on multi-day expeditions. The basalt walls of the Gobustan area and the gorges of the Lahic territory offer rock climbing opportunities in a low-altitude environment. Azerbaijani mountaineering has a Soviet tradition, with clubs active in Baku and Ganja during the period of the USSR, when Caucasian expeditions were integrated into the Union's mountaineering circuits.
Trail running is a developing discipline in Azerbaijan, with a still limited but growing offer. The main competitive event is the Baku Marathon, an asphalt race held every spring around the capital's Caspian waterfront, with distances from half-marathon to full marathon. In the mountainous context, the Shahdag National Park offers the most favourable terrain for high-altitude trail running, with peaks over 4,000 metres and valleys that can be run on unstructured trails. The opening up of the country to tourism and investment in sports infrastructure in the Greater Caucasus regions are creating the conditions for future competitions in the mountain environment.
Information
General Data
Capital: Baku
Area: 86.600 km²
Minimum elevation: -28m (Caspian Sea depression)
Maximum elevation: 4,466m - Bazardüzü
Number of inhabitants: 10.191,000 (estimated 2024)
Official name: Azərbaycan Respublikası
Name of inhabitants: Azerbaijani
Economic regions: Absheron - Aran - Alto Karabakh - Daghlig Shirvan - Ganja-Gazakh - Guba-Khachmaz - Lankaran - Nakhchivan - Shaki-Zaqatala - Shirvan - Yukhari Karabakh - Kalbajar-Lachin - Mil-Garabakh - Baku
Bordering countries: Armenia - Georgia - Iran - Russia - Turkey
Institutional website: https://www.azerbaijan.az