Azerbaijan
Baku in three layers: walled city, oil boom, flame towers
Azerbaijan’s capital stacks three cities on the Caspian. Read them in order and the skyline suddenly makes sense.
Operations · Azerbaijan · 9 Jan 2026 · 4 min read
The walled core
Start inside Icherisheher, the UNESCO-listed old city — the Maiden Tower and the Palace of the Shirvanshahs. This is the medieval Baku, compact and walkable.
The oil-boom ring
Step outside the walls into the belle-époque city the first oil boom built around 1900 — grand facades, the seafront boulevard, and mansions now turned museums.
The flame towers
The second boom raised the glass Flame Towers and the Heydar Aliyev Center. Seen after the first two layers, the modern skyline reads as the latest chapter, not a theme park.