Metravel city quest
City Baku: free walking route “quest: the Old City behind the double gates” along the sights. 12 points. Approximately 2 h 30 min. Quests and legends
Icherisheher, the Inner City, is old Baku, still living within its ring of fortress walls. The walls were erected in the 12th century under Shirvanshah Manuchehr III, and the Caspian once came almost right up to them. Inside are only about twenty hectares: narrow lanes, mosques, bathhouses, caravanserais, the palace of Shirvan's rulers and a tower that scholars still argue about. In 2000 the Old City, together with the Palace of the Shirvanshahs and the Maiden Tower, was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
These streets also have a second life in cinema. They stood in for Buenos Aires in “Amphibian Man”, Istanbul in “The Diamond Arm” and Tehran in “Tehran 43”: Baku played half the world and remained itself. Along the way you will decipher the old coat of arms above the northern gates, optionally turn into the street where Gorbunkov fell on level ground, read the date on the city's oldest mosque and, at the end, choose your own answer in the thousand-year debate about Baku's main tower.
What to do: 1) Read the story and task at each stop. 2) Find the place on the map. 3) Look around and answer the question.
The route is about two kilometres on foot, including an extra film location, taking two to two and a half hours with stops. It begins at the Double Gates on Istiglaliyyat Street, winds past the Palace of the Shirvanshahs towards the southern wall and ends at the Maiden Tower. Entry to the palace and tower requires a ticket, but all tasks are completed outside. Wear clothing that covers you when entering mosques; women cover their heads, and shoes are left at the entrance. Baku is hot in summer and windy at any time of year, so bring water and something to cover your head.
The route points in order — what these places are and why they are interesting. Tasks and answers stay inside the quest.
The Double Fortress Gates, called Gosha Gala Gapisi in Azerbaijani, are the main northern entrance to the Old City: two arches side by side, each beneath the wall's crenellated crest and projecting loopholes. The gates are almost identical in size and shape but were born in different centuries.
The old coat of arms has another story. You can read it as an account of how the fortress works: the central image represents the city, while the figures at the sides are the walls protecting it.
From the gates, follow the outside of the wall to the small square by the Ismailiyya building. Here the medieval fortifications form the backdrop to a very different story: the story of Azerbaijani satire.
The Palace of the Shirvanshahs stands at the highest point of the Old City: three courtyards at different levels, surrounded by sturdy walls, with the domes of the mausoleum and palace mosque and a minaret rising above them. Of the many tens of palaces the Shirvanshahs once owned, only this one survives.
Opening hours: Daily 10:00–19:00 · Ticket: Foreign visitors: adults 24 AZN, children aged 5–17 12 AZN; citizens of Azerbaijan: adults 7 AZN, students 3 AZN, children 2 AZN
The Museum of Miniature Books is a small stone house in the very heart of the Old City, beside the Palace of the Shirvanshahs. Inside are glass display cases containing thousands of books the size of a matchbox or even a fingernail, lined up in neat rows like a real library.
Opening hours: Tue, Wed, Fri–Sun 11:00–17:00; closed Mon and Thu · Ticket: Free admission
In the middle of a little square by the fortress wall stands an enormous dark head of the poet Aliagha Vahid, placed directly on a low platform without any column. His face is etched with wrinkles, while his hair, neck and chest become a knobbly, living mass that invites you to walk around and study it at length.
This is an optional film detour: the route through the lane is about 240 metres longer than the direct walk from the poet's head to Muhammad Mosque. If you would like to see the filming location, turn towards the southern stretch of the wall, then return to the main route towards the mosque after your visit.
Muhammad Mosque is a low stone building with a heavy minaret tapering slightly towards the top, the oldest of Icherisheher's medieval monuments.
Juma Mosque is the Old City's main Friday mosque, with a slender minaret and a little balcony for the muezzin pressed against its northern wall. The present building, with columns decorated in stone and wood, was built at the turn of the 20th century with funding from the patron Haji Shikhali Dadashov.
The “Chay Baghi 145” tea house stands in a lane by Maiden Tower Square, with views of the tower and the Old City's roofs from its open terrace. People come for long tea sessions, filling breakfasts and the view of the tower.
Two medieval caravanserais face each other across a narrow passage, with the top of the Maiden Tower visible above their walls. Each entrance is a deep pointed arch in a smooth stone wall without outward-facing windows: an inn was a little fortress for merchants and their goods.
The Maiden Tower, called Giz Galasi in Azerbaijani, is an enormous stone cylinder on a ledge of coastal rock, 28 metres high on one side and 31 metres on the other, with a diameter of 16.5 metres. The walls at the bottom are five metres thick.
Opening hours: Daily 10:00–19:00 · Ticket: Foreign visitors: adults 19 AZN, children aged 5–17 9 AZN; citizens of Azerbaijan: adults 5 AZN, students 2.5 AZN, children 2 AZN
This route is part of Metravel city quests. Below are the other quests in this city and cities with quests nearby.