The Bite Magazine - Autumn/Winter 2022 - Issue 32

bitetravel guests anchors the three towers. At night, LED lights on the building’s exterior create a flick- ering effect that enhances the ‘flame’ concept. Other skyscrapers in the city include Baku TV Tower, a free-standing reinforced concrete tel- ecommunications facility built in 1996, stand- ing at 310 metres. At a height of 277 metres, Baku Tower, made from reinforced concrete and steel, was completed in 2020 and has 52 floors used primarily for office space. SOCAR Tower, the headquarters of the State Oil Com- pany of the Azerbaijan Republic, completed in 2016, is the 4th tallest building with a height of 196 metres. Aquatic Palace is a sporting venue in the city that hosted the 2015 European Games and the 4th Islamic Solidarity Games in 2017. It has three swimming pools, one of which is Olympic-sized and designed for various com- petitions at local and international levels. The palace has sections reserved for VIPs, media and disabled people. Its roof has unique pano- ramic glass panels that can convert solar ener- gy into electricity and is used to supply power to other sections of the palace. Art lovers may visit the studio of local artist Ali Shamsi in the Old City, whose space is full of character and a quirky attraction in one of the city’s most beautiful areas. His oil and acrylic paintings have been exhibited nationally and internationally in Germany, the United States, Latvia, the United Arab Emirates, France, Ita- ly and the UK. Shamsi imbues his works with coded messages conveying the human spirit's strength through surrealism and abstraction. The Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape covers three areas of a plateau of rocky boul- ders found in the semi-desert of central Azer- baijan. It has a collection of more than 6,000 rock engravings, including plants, animals and cultures, tracing the history of humanity in Eurasia from the Paleolithic era to the Mid- dle Ages. The remains of inhabited caves, set- tlements, and burials are also found here. The site covers an area of 537 hectares and is part of the larger protected Gobustan Reservation. Art is expressed in many facets in Baku. The Museum of Modern Art opened in 2009, al- lowing freedom and the absence of rigidly de- fined frameworks in its expositions. Visiting this beautiful architectural facility, the brain- child of Azerbaijan artist and curator Altai Sadikh-Zadeh, you’ll notice the lack of cor- ners, open passages and varied angles of incli- nation of the walls. The museum houses the works of Azerbaijani artists and great masters like Picasso, Dali and Chagall. However, the core of the paintings and sculp- tures are created by homegrown avant-garde artists from the second half of the 20th cen- tury to the present, like Huseyn Aliyev, Nadir Kasumov, Ashraf Murad, and Eldar Mamed- ov. The facility also consists of two separate exhibition halls occupied by the Metropolis Gallery with extensive works by contempo- rary authors and another section dedicated to ‘unknown art’ appearing in the country during Soviet rule. When you set eyes on the Heydar Aliyev Centre, you may notice a continuous fluid relationship between its interior and the sur- rounding plaza. This iconic building designed by Zaha Hadid combines its concrete structure with a space frame system. It has large-scale column-free spaces with vertical structural el- ements that the envelope and curtain wall sys- tem absorb. Unconventional features include the curved 'boot columns' and the 'dovetail' tapering of the cantilever beams that support the building. An incredible creation, Deniz Shopping Mall and Caspian Star, visually resembling a lo- tus flower, is located on land reclaimed from the Caspian Sea. It was initially designed by Chapman Taylor in 2007 and repurposed in 2020 to include five levels of entertainment, leisure, dining facilities and retail. The build- ing was designed as a national symbol that relied on the state emblem of Azerbaijan, an eight-pointed star. Azerbaijan has the highest density of subaerial mud volcanoes, with Lokbatan being the most active. The gas flares sometimes reach more than 100 metres high, and mud breccia which exhibits impressive bursts every five years, cre- ate mud flows from the gryphon conical noz- zle extending more than 1.5 kilometres. After an eruptive event, the mud breccia seals the structure, prevents gas releases, and promotes overpressure build-up in the subsurface. Baku is a city of wonder, beauty, preservation and charisma. The Old City retains its storied history with UNESCO World Heritage sites and the slow-paced, quiet side. The more mod- ern state delivers gentrification of new hotels, architectural marvels, and shopping complex- es such as the Fountains Square abound with boutiques and restaurants. Why not experi- ence both sides of the coin to get a sense of the preserved and energetic urban vibe city con- founded with a trendy mix of cultures? www.regent-holidays.co.uk Mud Volcano Flow fromGryphon Con- ical Nozzle Ali Shamsi Studio in Old City Bibi-Heybat Mosque Courtyard Art Doll Exhibition at Heydar Aliyev Centre