Forecast
Baku
Local time--:--
Asia/BakuWeather Forecast
Baku, AzerbaijanOpen-Meteo forecast.
Baku city overview
Baku mixes a walled Silk Road core with Caspian promenades and bold modern towers. Walk Icherisheher for the Maiden Tower and Palace of the Shirvanshahs, then use Baku Boulevard for sea views and the Flame Towers skyline. Heydar Aliyev International Airport is the main gateway, with road transfers into the centre.
Worth seeing
Icherisheher
Icherisheher is a named stop in Baku worth keeping on the route when it fits the day's transport, timing and neighborhood plan.
View on map
Maiden Tower
Maiden Tower is a clear heritage marker in Baku, best used as a fixed point when grouping nearby streets, monuments and viewpoints.
View on map
Palace of the Shirvanshahs
Palace of the Shirvanshahs is a clear heritage marker in Baku, best used as a fixed point when grouping nearby streets, monuments and viewpoints.
View on map
Baku Boulevard
Baku Boulevard is a named stop in Baku worth keeping on the route when it fits the day's transport, timing and neighborhood plan.
View on map
Flame Towers
Flame Towers is a clear heritage marker in Baku, best used as a fixed point when grouping nearby streets, monuments and viewpoints.
View on map
Heydar Aliyev Center
Heydar Aliyev Center gives Baku a strong culture stop for museums, exhibitions or local collections, and works best as an indoor anchor in the day's route.
View on mapStay overview
Choose Icherisheher for historic atmosphere, Fountain Square for the easiest first stay, Baku Boulevard for seafront hotels and family walks, or Nasimi for business trips and better value near metro routes.
Hotels & areas
Baku hotels split between heritage stays in the Old City, central restaurant access around Fountain Square, modern Caspian-facing properties on the Boulevard, and practical business hotels in Nasimi.
Icherisheher
The walled Old City is atmospheric and walkable, best for boutique hotels near historic sights and evening strolls.
Best for: history, boutique stays, walkingSee hotel optionsFountain Square
Fountain Square is central for restaurants, shopping streets and nightlife, with easy walks to the Boulevard and Old City.
Best for: restaurants, nightlife, first visitsSee hotel optionsBaku Boulevard
The seafront Boulevard area suits modern hotels, Caspian walks and quick access to malls and cultural venues.
Best for: sea views, modern hotels, familiesSee hotel optionsNasimi
Nasimi offers business hotels, metro access and a more practical base between the station, offices and central sights.
Best for: business, transit, valueSee hotel optionsFlights & airports
Heydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD) arrival plan
- Heydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD)About 17 km from the centre
Compare airport access against hotel location, arrival time, rental car pickup, late flights and onward driving before choosing the first night base.
Rental cars
Baku day-trip car use
Do not rent for central Baku; use taxis and tours unless driving to mud volcanoes or the Absheron Peninsula.
Compare rental carsTravel tips
Best base
Fountain Square is the safest first choice if you want restaurants, shops and the Old City close together.
Wind
Keep the Baku plan compact: group nearby sights together and leave enough time for transfers, meals and weather changes.
Airport transfers
Check the route from Heydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD) before choosing between a central hotel and an airport-area first night in Baku.
Day trip
Plan Gobustan and the mud volcanoes as a guided day trip because public transport is awkward.
Nearby ideas
Heritage · about 1 h · car or bus south-west on the Alat highway
Gobustan
Six thousand rock engravings of boats and dancers, beside fields of bubbling mud volcanoes.
View on mapHeritage · about 40 min · bus 184 east to Surakhani
Ateshgah fire temple
A Zoroastrian and Hindu temple built round a natural gas vent that burned for centuries.
View on mapNature · about 35 min · bus 217 north to Mehemmedi
Yanar Dag
A hillside that has been alight since antiquity, where gas seeps through the sandstone.
View on mapCity history
It was called Bagavan during the Sassanian rule (22-651 CE). and later became known by its Perso-Arabic name باکو (Bākū).
Akhsitan I built a navy in Baku and successfully repelled a Rus' assault in 1170.
After a devastating earthquake struck Shamakhi, the capital of Shirvan, Shirvanshah's court moved to Baku in 1191.
In March 1797 the tsarist troops left Baku, and the city became part of Qajar Iran again.
In 1812, a city court was established where local customs and Russian law were applied together.
With the transition to civilian administration in 1840, Baku became a district center attached to the Caspian Province.
Following the devastating earthquake in Shamakhi in 1859, the city gained the status of a provincial capital and emerged as one of the major administrative and political centers of the Caucasus.
Williams Jackson of Columbia University wrote in his work From Constantinople to the Home of Omar Khayyam (1911): Baku is a city founded upon oil, for to its inexhaustible founts of naphtha it owes.
Seeking to capitalize on the existing ethnic conflicts, by spring 1918, Bolsheviks inspired and condoned civil war in and around Baku.
From 1922 to 1930 Baku became the venue for one of the major trade fairs of the Soviet Union, serving as a commercial bridgehead to Iran and the Middle East. World War II The.
During World War II (1939–1945) and particularly during the 1942 Nazi German invasion of the southwestern Soviet Union, Baku became of vital strategic importance to the Axis powers.
Between the 12th and 14th centuries, massive fortifications were built in Baku and the surrounding towns.
The city walls of Baku were also rebuilt and strengthened.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, steps toward modernization were taken in the fields of infrastructure, education, and healthcare. Discovery of oil The Russians built the first oil-distilling factory in Balaxani in.