The Bite Magazine - Autumn/Winter 2022 - Issue 32

bitetravel Shirvanshah Palace’s construction started in 1411 and was com- pleted in the 1420s after Ibrahim I of Shrivan transformed Baku into the country’s capital. The two-story building symbolises the Shirvan-Absheron architecture style with its 50 dimensions and con- struction outlines connected with three narrow winding staircases. Divankhane is a pavilion consisting of an octahedral hall in a small courtyard. The shah’s mosque was erected in 1441, and Seyid Yahya Bakuvi’s mausoleum was completed in the 1450s. Within the palace complex, you’ll find Dervish’s Mausoleum, the Eastern Gate, the Palace mosque, the remains of the Key Qubad mosque, the Palace burial vault, Murad’s Gate from the 16th century, the Tomb of the Shirvanshah family, the Palace bathhouse and the ovdan (storage lake). Other onsite monuments include the Moham- med mosque with the adjacent minaret built in 1078 and the remains of the 9th-10th century mosque near the Maiden Tower. Built in 1990, Bibi-Heybat Mosque was a restored version of the orig- inal building during the Shirvanshahs dynasty in the 13th century. The Bolsheviks destroyed it in 1936 during the struggle against re- ligion in the USSR. The former mosque was located in the southern part, while a 20-metre-high minaret is found on the west side. Fata- li Khan's inscription was added to the crypt and two niches whose tombstone marble slab is now at the State Museum of History. In the same facility, the world’s first mechanically drilled oil well built by Nikolay Voskoboynikov in Balakhani on the Apsheron Peninsu- la produced the first gush of oil in 1847 at 21 meters deep. It was a massive accomplishment for Azerbaijan, becoming the main oil extraction centre and providing half of the world’s oil production. The reconstruction was completed by the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) in 2017. One of the unique attractions in Azerbaijan is Yanar Dag (burning mountainside) on the Absheron peninsula, where you will see fasci- nating tall flames dancing restlessly across a 10-metre stretch of the hillside. Venetian explorer Marco Polo wrote about the mysterious phenomena when he travelled through the country in the 13th cen- tury. Silk Road merchants told others of the flames when they trav- elled to other lands, earning Azerbaijan the moniker ‘land of fire’. Ensure you visit Ateshgah Fire Temple, a pentagonal complex built during the 17th and 18th century by Indian settlers in Baku, whose name derives from the Persian word for ‘home of fire’. The fire rituals date back to the 10th century or earlier, with its cupola-topped altar shrine centrepiece built upon a natural gas vent where a raw, eter- nal flame burned until 1969. Today, the fire descends from the city’s main gas supply and is only lit for visitors. The walled courtyard complex is like a caravansary travellers' inn where pilgrims and passing merchants would stay. French writer Al- exandre Dumas visited the site in 1858 and later wrote in his book, Adventures in the Caucasus. "From hundred holes in the ground, some large, some small, spouted tongues of flame that the wind blew this way and that, flattered against the earth or whirled up to the sky, but could never extinguish." In 1975, the site became a museum and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998. Another fire-influenced monument is the iconic Flame Towers, which stands a maximum of 190 metres tall above the city. The tallest, a 39-story residential tower, accommodates 130 luxury apartments. The second is a 36-storey hotel providing stunning views from 318 guest rooms, and the last is an office tower with more than 350,000 square feet of flexible Class A commercial office space. A retail po- dium with leisure and entertainment amenities for occupants and Baku TV Tower & Flame Towers Memorial at Funicular Upper Station Deniz Shopping Mall and Caspian Star Atashgah Fire Temple, Suraxani Petroglyph Museum, Qobustan