Baku

Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, lies on the Caspian Sea and, with 2 million inhabitants, is not only the largest in the country, but also in the entire Caucasus region.
Baku lies on the Silk Road and in the middle of a large oil field. Until 1901, Baku supplied half of the world's oil. Even Hitler wanted to conquer Baku in the Second World War with Operation Edelweis in order to gain access to the oil reserves and cut off the Russians from the oil supply. But the German army failed to cross the Caucasus. More than 100,000 soldiers died in the battle for the Caucasus.

The old town of Baku was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000. In 2003, however, it was put on the red list of endangered World Heritage Sites, originally because of an earthquake, but now mainly because of uncontrolled construction activities. I must also say that most of the buildings in the old town have been "renovated" too much for tourism and most of them look as if they had only been built yesterday.

Today the landmark of Baku are the "Flame Towers", consisting of three towers up to 181 m high. They are supposed to represent flames and are spectacularly lit at night.