Icerisheher - Part II: Palace of the Shirvanshahs

When my mom was in town over the holidays, we walked around Icerisheher and had a local breakfast at one of the small huts there. The walk from Baku's Fountain Square to the restaurant in Icerisheher is quite lovely.
I should probably apologize for the bad quality of my pictures. I have a nice camera, but lately, I've become a little lazy carrying around the big camera as taking pictures with my Iphone is soooo much more convenient.

As I mentioned in my last post, Icerisheher was built like a big defensive system. There were about 70 of these semicircular towers, but only a few survived or were rebuilt. 

When Anthon and I walked around Icerisheher for the first time, there was a traditional music group playing Azeri music. There were also several small outside cafes that are now closed during the winter. 

We were pleasantly surprised at how clean the streets are, as you may be able to see in the pictures. Cleanliness is very important to Azerbaijanis. Jeddah's old downtown Al Balad was pretty filthy and smelly, so we appreciate having a very clean city to walk around here. 

There are quite a few of these restaurant huts throughout Icerisheher. Some are just cafes where you can smoke shisha, but there are several other huts that offer traditional Azeri bread called Tendir. It is made in these clay ovens. 

Here is a video that I found on youtube that shows what a traditional Azeri breakfast looks like, and how Tendir is made. 

Video link: Azerbaijani breakfast and tendir making  (it ends at about 4.44min)

It was a national holiday when we went and many stores were closed that morning, so our tendir breakfast place was quite busy with tourists (mostly Middle Eastern) and local people, but luckily they had a free table for us. 

The hut was nothing fancy, but it looked quite cozy with all the traditional decorations on the walls and ceilings. 

We weren't really sure what to order, so we just ordered the "traditional" breakfast. It came with fresh bread, several kinds of white cheeses (some salty, some mild, some creamy), butter, very delicious honey, olives, a few vegetables and scrambled eggs with tomatoes and cheese. The scrambled eggs with tomatoes looked like Shakshouka which we had quite often in Jeddah, but the Azeri version is soooo much better (in my opinion)!

I loooove freshly squeezed orange juice, so I ordered some and it was very, very good.

For three adults, we paid about 60 Azeri Manat, which is about $31 - not the cheapest breakfast, but totally worth it for this wonderful and delicious cultural experience. 

When you enter the Mangal hut where we had breakfast, you can see older ladies with white aprons, headscarves and gold teeth make bread, dumplings, and qutab (a thin rolled-out dough that is filled with herbs, meat, pumpkin or other cheese, then folded and griddled on a convex griddle like the black and brown one in the picture, and served with melted butter on top).

After our delicious and very filling breakfast, we headed over to the Palace of the Shirvanshahs. We had apparently walked by it several times before without noticing that it was right there behind the gate. 

We paid 4 Azerbaijani Manat per person for the entrance, which is currently about $2.10. 

The complex consists of the palace as the main building, a divankhana/stone pavilion, burial vaults, a mausoleum, the shah's mosque with a minaret tower that you can see in this picture, and the remnants of the palace baths. 

The complex was built during the 15th century by Sheykh Ibrahim I of Shirvan, who transferred his capital from Shemakha to Baku after a devastating earthquake. 

Similar to the Maiden Tower, surprisingly little is known about the buildings. Historians are not sure if the palace was built as a memorial or as the ruler's palace. Less than 100 years later, after the conquest of Baku by the Safavids, the palace already began to fall into ruin, so we don't have too much information about it today.    

I found this map of the palace complex very helpful. 

Right next to the ticket booth is the Divankhana, which is an octahedral vaulted stone pavilion. It is located in the middle of a little courtyard that is surrounded by a gallery arcade.

The vaulted stone pavilion. On the left side, you can see a little bit of the gallery arcade.

A beautiful, ornate portal of the pavilion with Arabic calligraphy

As you enter the main Palace through a high portal, you find yourself in a octahedral room, which leads to other areas of the palace. Today, there is a little museum inside with neat Azerbaijani artifacts like the ones in the pictures below.
The Azerbaijan region has always been rich in natural resources such as copper, gold, silver, iron ore and fossil fuels. Since Baku is situated along the Great Silk Route, the city could trade its resources with, for example, precious stones that weren't found in the area.

A copper Salver dish used for baking and serving national sweets

Copper Sarpush, used to keep pilaf warm and protect the dish from dust and insects

Traditional clothing hadn't changed much until the early 20th century, when Azerbaijanis started wearing more European-style clothes. Until then, men wore loose pants held by a belt, a tunic made of wool, silk or satin (depending on their income) and a turban or Arakhchin cap. 

Women wore skirts with waist-length blouses. On top, they wore jackets like the one in the pictures, padded according to the season. The hair and head of women were always covered with an Arakhchin cap and a veil or scarf. 

Santur - a stringed percussion instrument that was widely used in palaces during the 12th-15th century. 

A salt bag for storing the precious mineral during journey

Bath Shoes - awesome, huh? I would love to see how they walked in these shoes.
They definitely look cooler than our plastic flip-flops these days. 

Probably the most interesting object at the museum - a mustache keeper/trainer!!!!
The description says "used by men to keep one's mustache in shape during sleeping"

      After a few minutes at the museum, we walked around the palace complex, and took a closer look the mausoleum, mosque and the remains of the bath house.       

Nice view from a top the palace complex. You can't see it in this picture, but there are some stairs in the lower left corner that lead you to the mausoleum and the other buildings. On the left side of the stairs, there is a small entrance to a place where you can dress up in traditional Azerbaijani clothing and take pictures. I would have loved to take pictures with Anthon and my mom, but the two were too cool for that :-/

I didn't see any prices listed and the photographer was busy with a small family, but it was probably not that expensive as things here generally seem to be reasonably priced. 

When you keep going down the stairs and turn right, there are a few rooms that talk about the Bayil Fortress that was build during the 13th century, but sank into the sea during an earthquake in 1306. 

The mausoleum of the sufistic state astronomer Seyd Yahya Bakuvi (15th century) on the left 

Entrance to the Royal Mausoleum/Dynastic Mausoleum of the Shirvanshahs

My mom and husband didn't seem to be too interested in exploring the complex, so we rushed through the rest and must have somehow missed entering the mosque. But we did see the remains of the royal bath house.

So yeah, that was our little excursion to the Palace of the Shirvanshahs. I hope you liked learning more about this relatively unknown palace complex. If you're town, this is something worthwhile to see.

Baku's Içerisheher - Part I: The Maiden Tower

One of my favorite things to do in Baku is walking around the historical core of Baku, called Içerisheher (pronounced Itsherisheher). With its thick stone walls, cobblestone streets, narrow labyrinth-like outlay, beautiful gates, little souvenir shops, restaurants, art galleries, the excavated remains of old buildings, the Palace of the Shirvanshahs and the Maiden Tower, there is plenty to see. I've walked around Içerisheher probably about 10-15x now, and I still discover something "new" every time I go there.

From what researchers know, or claim to know, this area dates back at least 1000 years ago, with the fortress walls and towers, and the Maiden Tower being built during the 11-12th century, while the Palace of the Shirvanshahs was built in the 15th century.
Between the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, Baku's population grew and neighborhoods were formed outside of the old town area. This is when its name "Içerisheher", meaning "Inner City", emerged. Those not fortunate or rich enough to live within Içerisheher, had to live outside of the walls in the "Bayir Sheher", Outer City, and were often called the "barefooted people of the Outer City" by the people who lived within the walls.

Içerişheher was divided into several quarters just like many old cities were throughout the world, for example into the quarter for people involved in the naval industry, another quarter was for the city nobles, then a quarter for the clergymen, a Jewish quarter, one for merchants and several little areas for all kinds of trades.
Today, you don't really get that feel anymore that there are certain quarters, and I can imagine that it was a lot busier then than it is today. It's actually surprisingly quiet there.

If you decide to go to Içerisheher, here are the options of how to learn more about the old town.
We haven't taken any tours yet, so I have no idea how good they are.

The Maiden Tower

About two weeks ago, we finally went up the Maiden Tower - yay! We usually have William and his stroller with us, so we were never able to go up the tower, but I had been very curious about what's inside. So, when my mother was in town over the holidays, we asked her to watch William for a bit and finally went up there.
Before going, I thought that there was not much inside and that you just go up some stairs along the walls all the way to the top, but they actually have a little museum inside that explains the different theories about the purpose of this building. I thought it was well done and worth the $2 entry fee for locals (I think it is about $4.20 for tourists).
If you are interested in going there, I would like to warn you that the building is not accessible with a stroller or wheelchair.
There is no need to be super fit to make it up to the top. The tower has about 8 floors, which are each connected by 8-10 stairs. Since each floor showcases some information about the tower, you get a small break in between stairs, so that makes is easier to go up.


Researchers are not sure when exactly this tower was built and what purpose it was for. There are several hypotheses about its purpose, which all have strong evidence.

Here are the are the main ones, for those of you who like geeky history stuff:

1. Defensive Tower: During the 12th century, a strong defensive system was built around the city, which included twin city walls that connected 70 semicircular towers. At the nearby port, there was a fortress (Sabayil Fortress), whose ruins now lie under the sea (there is a model of the fortress at the Palace of the Shirvanshahs, if you would like to take a closer look at it). Some people think that as one of the main buildings built in the city, the Maiden Tower was part of this defensive system. It is calculated that the tower could house up to 200 people in case of an attack. 

The very thick walls, the hidden water well and the entrance suggest that the tower was built to protect against enemy attacks. However, the tower does not have any arrow slits and merlons which are typical for old defense buildings. 

Isn't this picture so neat?!? Baku's defensive system with the twin walls, about 70 semicircular towers and the Maiden Tower right at the water (now it's about 200m away from the water)

2. Theory: Ancient Temple

Sun, light and fire worship have been practiced in the region since ancient times. "Buta", which is the symbol of fire and is shaped like a bird's eye, has been in wide use. From above, the Maiden Tower is shaped like a "Buta", suggesting that it could have served as a religious building like a temple. Its placement and layout of the upper four windows allow sun rays to enter directly into the tower on December 22nd, which is the winter equinox. As shortest day of the year, it is believed that special rituals were held at the tower on that day to restore the sun's power and renew its cycle.  

3. Observatory

The third theory is that the Maiden Tower was an observatory. Its windows and buttresses face the rising sun on important dates, which is very unlikely to be a coincidence. Bright stars like Sirius in the Great Dog constellation, Vega in the Lyra constellation, and Antares in Scorpius, can all be observed from the tower's windows. 

Since science and religion was much more connected in old times, the Maiden Tower could have fulfilled all three purposes. 

It is still unclear why the Maiden Tour is called like that. Some people say that "Maiden" could be the name given to a defensive building that has never been captured by an enemy.
But, as so often with things with uncertain origins, there are also many legends about it:
1. The most popular one is about a beautiful girl, possibly the daughter of the Khan of Baku, who did not want to agree to marriage before a shah, who fell in love with her, would build a tower for her.

2. Then there is a slightly different version that says that this girl who asked the prince to build a tower before she would agree to marriage, would ask him to build it taller and taller in order to put off the wedding day, and when it was finally tall enough, she threw herself from it.

3. And then there is a version that says that a Khan was once imprisoned by his son, and in fear of being incarcerated as well, his sister (the Khan's daughter) jumped from the tower into her death.

There is not too much known about the Maiden Tower and its purpose, so the museum is not full with texts to read, which was quite pleasant for my anti-museum husband :-)

Shaft to a water well inside the tower

The Maiden Tower is 28 to 31 meters high, depending on which side you measure it. The walls are 5 meters thick.
There are 2 shafts within the tower wall. One is a stone-cased shaft that leads from the 3rd floor down to a 1.7-meter deep well that is 9 meters below the surface, and another, narrow ceramic pipe shaft, which purpose is not known.

I'm not a historian, but I can imagine that the narrow ceramic pipe shaft could be some kind of sewage drain pipe, or a drainpipe for rainwater. 

Anyways, back to our tour. After about 8 flights of stairs, we finally got to the top. The view was nice up there. 

Up on the roof top, with the Flame Towers in the background

Beautiful view over Baku. On the right side, you can see a little bit of the Caspian Sea, then the beautiful green boardwalk along the shore, then Neftciler Prospekti, which is one of Baku's major streets. Along Neftciler, there are hotels like the Four Seasons and the JW Marriot Hotel, a few shopping malls, and many high-end stores like Dior, Salvatore Ferragamo, Bvlgari, Tiffany&Co, D&G, Burberry, etc. 

Oh wow... I thought this post is going to be about the whole Içerisheher, but there is too much to write about, so I'll split it up and tell you next time more about the Palace of the Shirvanshahs and the other neat things to see in the old city.
Stay tuned.

Göychay's Pomegranate Festival

Back in early November, Anthon, William and I went on a weekend trip to go to the Pomegranate Festival in Göychay that takes place every year. Göychay is about a 3-hour drive away from Baku.

We went to Göychay the Southern (faster) route, drove up to Gebele
and then took the Northern, more scenic route back.

Pomegranates are a big deal here in Azerbaijan. Stores sell several varieties of pomegranates, all kinds of different products made with pomegranates like fruit leather, sauces, and juices. You can see pomegranates in many paintings, and pretty much every souvenir shop sells little decoration pottery pomegranates or pomegranates made out of metal.

I love these ceramic pomegranates. Aren't they cute?!?
They oftentimes also come with similar patterns
like the ones on the bowls and plates in the background. 

Metal pomegranates that are sold at almost every souvenir shop

Besides a flame, water, a carpet and the mythical Simurgh bird, the logo for the 1st European Olympic Games, that took place in Azerbaijan, also included a pomegranate as one of their symbols. And one of the two mascots was "Nar", which is the Azerbaijani word for pomegranate.

                             


In fact, we just recently bought four Azerbaijani paintings for our Christmas present this year, and two of them have pomegranates in them.

Before our trip to Göychay, we tried to research as much as possible, but there is not too much information in English about the festival. We didn't know where exactly to go and what time the festival and the parade would start, so we just drove to the middle of the city where the streets were decorated with colorful banners, and waited for things to start. There were many people in the downtown area that all seemed to be there for the festival.
Throughout the city, you could see pomegranate stamps on the streets, pomegranate fountains, and other pomegranate decorations.

After walking around the in the downtown area for two hours, we started wondering if the festival really took place in the downtown area.
We looked at google maps for larger open areas that might be where everything takes place, then followed the festival's banners and eventually discovered the main festival field.

It was pretty crowded around the booths, so I told Anthon to go first while I stay with William and the stroller. A couple of seconds later, a woman tapped my back and started interviewing me without even asking for permission. A few seconds later, a group of people surrounded us, the camera was on me and William and the reporter started asking questions, and I couldn't really chicken out anymore. All I remember from the little interview is that I was quite confused, that I couldn't speak and smile normally because I had just got my braces in that week and that she made me say a few sentences in Azeri that I probably butchered :-)

10 seconds after Anthon had gone to a booth,
he turned around to see where we were and found us like this

Besides that, the Pomegranate Festival was fun to visit. It was not huge, but it was nice to see the things you can make with pomegranates - art, cakes, juice, sauce, jam, and all kinds of hygiene products. People showcased many different kinds of pomegranates in many shades of red and yellow that visitors could try. We would have loved to buy some pomegranates, but for some reason nobody seemed to really be selling them.

Pomegranate opened the "Göychay way"

There was a booth that sold hygiene products, there were some people who sold homemade pomegranate sauces that Azeris use for a traditional sturgeon dish, and there were a bunch of street food vendors (mainly kebab). We bought something that looked like pomegranate juice, but it tasted so bad! Not sure what that was. We asked a local to try and tell us what it was, but she didn't even know what it was and did not want to finish her glass either.

There was a large food court field with lots of these kebab stands.
I have no idea how these guys can grill in the smoke like that all day long.

At the day long festival, they have a parade with the Pomegranate Queen and several competitions like juicing pomegranates just with your hands, and weighing who has got the heaviest pomegranate, wrestling.
More to see in this youtube video I found of last year's Pomegranate Festival:

We only stayed for about 2 hours because we got tired of trying to keep our boy happy in his stroller, and unfortunately missed these cool activities. Not sure if they took place earlier in the day or after we were gone.
Maybe next time...

But William made some new friends. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Azerbaijanis LOVE children!

We spent the night in Gebele at the Qafqaz Tufandag Mountain Resort Hotel, about 30 minutes north of Göychay.
We paid $67/night for a superior double room, breakfast included. The room looked modern and tastefully put together. Right outside of the hotel were two cable car lines to go up the mountains. I think we paid about $5 each to go up both cable cars.
The views were beautiful from up there.

We somehow managed to get William to sit down for 3 seconds and get a cute picture of him. 

Since eating out is not too much fun with William, we ordered food to our room. We hadn't eaten much all day and just ordered several dishes that sounded good to us. The portions were very generous and we couldn't finish  everything #firstworldproblems.
For all the food, we paid about $21- awesome!

After the day in Göychay, we were too tired to go out and see things in the afternoon, but I would love to go back to Gebele and visit the surrounding little sights that I saw on this map. There is a waterfall in the area (Yeddi Gozel), a mausoleum, an Udi church, a beautiful new mosque, a small theme park for young kids, a shooting club, a winery in Savalan, and some skiiing in the area.

On our ride back home, we stopped in Gobustan (about an hour away from Baku) to see this interesting early 15th century "Diri Baba" mausoleum that is carved into the mountains.

It's pretty hidden and we didn't see any signs leading to this mausoleum,
but we had read about this in a newsletter and decided to stop there since it was on our way back to Baku.

There is not too much inside the building. I looks like it is being used as a very small mosque now. There is a tiny corner room with a Koran, and then there is this room in the picture with a few seat cushions.

Stairs leading up to the roof top

So yeah, we really liked our first trip outside of Baku. The festival was not huge and amazing-amazing, but it was neat to get out of Baku and see more of the country, and see locals celebrate their favorite fruit and keep up traditions.