Azerbaijan. Cities, Sights and People | Travel Documentary

[Music] hey guys and welcome to cool vision in this video we're going to be talking about azerbaijan azerbaijan is a country in the south caucasus region that is bounded by the caspian sea to the east russia to the north georgia to the northwest armenian turkey to the west and iran to the south azerbaijan also has a landlocked exclave known as the nachovan autonomous republic the population of the country's 10 million 164 000 people azerbaijan is not very well known throughout the world so let's change that what's so special about azerbaijan well first it has a wide variety of landscapes and 9 out of 11 existing climate zones from deserts to the snow-capped mountains also it has delicious food and friendly people through different time periods this area was part of caucasian albania iranian dynasties russian empire and the ussr the republic of azerbaijan proclaimed its independence from the soviet union on august 30th 1991 since then it has come a long way but it had an obvious advantage over the other ussr republics two-thirds of the country is rich in oil and natural gas first industrial oil production in azerbaijan started in 1847 that is 11 years prior to oil discovery in pennsylvania usa by the turn of the 20th century azerbaijan was producing nearly half of the world's oil today the country's nominal gdp is over 73 billion dollars it's a huge step forward since 2004 when it was less than 8 billion the national currency is the manat let's take a look at the major cities of the country baku is the capital and the largest city of azerbaijan with a population of two million two hundred and ninety three thousand people it is situated on the western coast of caspian sea on the southern shore of the abshorn peninsula baku is sitting 28 meters below sea level which makes it the lowest lion national capital in the world how's that possible because the caspian sea is also below sea level the main attraction of the city is ishari shahir or the inner city within the inner city lies the palace of sherman shocks a royal retreat dating back to the 15th century and the centuries-old stone maiden tower which dominates the city skyline it's a city within a city in 2007 it had a population of about three thousand people carpet merchants men playing bay gammon and a labyrinth of narrow well-groomed streets with foreign embassies restaurants and souvenir shops when oil boom happened at the end of the 19th century it attracted all kinds of people from russia's to rich europeans who not only got rich on azerbaijanis black gold but they introduced european style and architecture thus the city earned the reputation of the paris of the east the state oil company of azerbaijan republic known as socar is a fully state-owned national oil and gas company headquartered in baku funny fact is that gas price and country is fixed very convenient no matter which gas station you go to is going to be the same and price for regular gas in 2022 is 2.2 dollars per gallon baku has many universities the largest of which are baku state university and azerbaijan state economic university tourism is growing and i met a lot of foreign tourists from different countries let's talk to them i'm all right how do you like it in baku so far it's so nice where do you come from come from the united states st louis missouri good stuff and what are you doing in baku uh i well we just got married this is my wife fidon uh we met in the united states and she's from here so we've been hanging out with her family just getting to know each other the official language is azerbaijani which is a turkic language but i was surprised that russian is also widely spoken and the younger generation speaks english would you say the usage of russian language is kind of decreasing most of people of older generation they used to live in soviet union and the main language in soviet union was russia that's why they are good in russia and the only people from youth who knows russian is like where children of people who lived in that era where russian was the main language but now it's decreasing and english is more common because overall in the whole world uh everyone's speaking in english it's like main language right baku began reinventing itself as an ultra-modern metropolis starting from the early 2000s and now the city has a lot of impressive architecture like the haider aliyah cultural center it's a museum of modern art designed by pritzker prize winning architect zachar hadid inside you'll find many different exhibitions about azerbaijan and its history as well as an automobile exhibition the zebra jean carpet museum in the shape of a folded carpet displaces urban giant carpets and rugs of various weaving techniques from different periods the crescent hotel dennis mall which reminds me of sydney opera and of course the flame tower some of the most iconic structures of baku they represent flames of fire because this region is known as the land of fire one of the towers is used as condos the second one is bureaus and offices and the third one is the fairmount hotel baku has a wide range of mesmerizing architecture from different time periods look at the palace of happiness 12th century romano tower the city hall building nizami museum of azerbaijan literature azerbaijan state philharmonic hall and many beautiful mosques like hater mosque taza pier mosque and the bibi haybat mosque which is a recreation of the 13th century mosque that was destroyed by the bolsheviks baku waterfront boulevard is my favorite part it's a pedestrian promenade that was established in 1909 which runs parallel to baku's seafront there's an amusement park ferris wheel a yacht club musical fountains and lots of restaurants and even a minute venice with gondolas how cool is that [Music] it's a great place to go jogging or cycling or walking your dog baku has hosted a lot of international events like the eurovision in 2012 the 2015 european games and formula one race on the baku city circuit with the track going around the old city the city has cool taxi cabs these black and purple and yellow cabs were introduced in 2011 and they look like london caps you only find these cabs in two cities in the world that is london and baku but they are pretty expensive so if you are in a budget you can use bolt app to get a ride it's really really affordable when it comes to public transportation baku has buses and a subway system that was opened in 1967 and it has three lines and 25 stations at present a single ride for subway and buses is just 18 cents there's also the bakufu nuclear that can take you to the flame towers there are many new residential areas being built like baku white city which kind of reminds me of paris what do you think it's going to be a community for about 50 000 people how much is one bedroom apartment here it's around 84 000 baku has a modern international airport that was designed by a turkish firm i really enjoyed the famous cocoons that is wooden pods on the top layer they house cafes bars as well as children's play areas baku men love conspicuous consumption and if you want to show everyone that you've made it you gotta have a mercedes g wagon typical salaries in baku range from 300 to 500 a month a taxi driver told me that he makes around 30 bucks a day but you can tell by the average salary and the cars that you see on the streets that there is an obvious income disparity in the vicinity of the city there are many places to visit like mod volcanoes salt lakes and natural gas fires like yenner doug which means a burning mountain true to its name the mountain has been blazing for at least 65 years i'm at a place called yanner doug and it's a natural gas fire that's been here for who knows how long but it was only discovered in 1950 by a shepherd who accidentally lit it attached of baku or the fire temple of baku as a castle-like religious temple that was used as a hindu psych and zoroastrian place of worship ooh mysterious [Music] gobustan it's a historical and cultural reserve located 60 kilometers southwest of baku you'll find more than 6 000 rock carvings depicting people animals ritual dances and camel caravans dating back to 5000 to 20 000 bc it covers a huge area of 537 hectares but only a small portion is open to the public they call baku the windy city you wonder why well let me show you i nearly had my car blown off the road once scared the car just got turned over now let's see the rest of the country how we gonna travel should you rent a car in azerbaijan i would say absolutely yes if you want to go places you got to have a car so rented this hyundai for 30 bucks a day hotels normally average around 30 to 50 dollars a night roads are a good quality but a heads up don't stay in the left lane on the freeway or you'll be fine at the nearest police station it happened to me four times until i figured out what i was doing wrong police will often offer to pay in cash half the amount but that's a little secret taking a road trip is safe and fun along the roads you will see vendors selling seasonal fruits there are plenty of rest areas and restaurants once you leave baku you'll start seeing a lot more lattice that is all soviet cars because outside of baku wages are a lot lower okay now we're going to visit the second largest city of azerbaijan and that is sungait hey guys and welcome to sumgait which is the second largest city in azerbaijan the population is 345 000 people it's a pretty industrial city not too many sites but the seaside promenade is very nice and they have uh sungai state university it's located 31 kilometers away from baku founded in 1949 sumgait grew rapidly as a major chemical and metallurgical center its plants produce aluminum steel pipes synthetic rubber petrochemicals and much more all of this unfortunately jeopardized the environmental situation and now it's one of the most polluted areas in the country the city used to have a tram and trolleybus system in the soviet days but now it's just buses many buses and taxis around the city there are more than 20 beaches and even a water park and because you can't swim in baku people would drive here to spend some time on the beach the waterfront boulevard and the simi park are popular places to hang out relax and watch the sunset pistaf is a famous sculpture in the simi park and is the symbol of sumgait let's talk to some locals okay what's your name my name is rashan nice to meet you what's your name now let's travel to the northwest of the country to the city of ganja gunja is the third largest city with a population of 335 thousand people contrary to sum gait genji has a lot of history and dates back 1500 years in the past different rulers controlled the region including arabs persians turks and russians fortress of ganja or rather the remains of the 16th century fortress welcomes you as you enter the city the economy of ganja is based on agriculture tourism and some industries for example ore minerals extraction from nearby mines supply ganja's metallurgical plants that produce copper and alumina ganja is home to four major universities including ganja state university let's talk to some locals if i finish university i graduate i want to master in foreign country maybe germany or germany yeah okay awesome and what do you want to study at the at the university [Music] [Music] moon [Music] what do you like about ganja i i first i like the genesis people people of genze okay yes and gender's food for example uh chanza pakhlava actually i study in here okay and uh what's your major what do you say veterinary doctor veterinary medicine yeah like the city also used to have a trolley bus system and a tram system but not anymore most sites are located around hayder alive square this is where you find ganja city hall if this building looks familiar to you don't worry there's a twin of this building in tbilisi georgia this one right next to the square you'll find jhuma mosque this mosque is called shahabas mosque or also known as juma mosque it was built in 1606 but the minarets were only added in 1776. shahabas was a king of iran in the 17th century let's go inside right across the mosque you'll find choche hamam or turkish bath house that was built in 1606 javadhan mausoleum javan han was the last of the rulers of the ganja hanait and ganja state philharmonic hall a concert hall for 1200 people if you want to stay at a really historic place try shahabas caravansarai it dates to the 17th century and was built during the reign of that same shahabbas altogether it has 54 rooms so if you're in ganja you're welcome to stay here alexander nevsky church reflects russia's occupation of azerbaijan and it was built in 1887. now let's take a walk along javon hunt street it's the busiest shopping street in the city it's a focal point of the city lined with buildings from the russian empire era souvenir shops and cafes filled the lower floors of the attractive facades if you're looking for some good coffee try london cafe there's modern ganja mall if you want to do some shopping and the great indoor market called bazaar which was recently renovated where you can buy some fresh fruits and drink some delicious tea it feels more like a mall than a market there are restaurants and bakeries and so much more the city is green and has a lot of parks like hans garden a lush park in the middle of the city another major park is haider alia park it's the largest park in the caucasus it's enormous 450 hectares or 1100 acres the lavish arch of triumph marks the main entrance it's a nice place but maybe a little too large for my liking is considered the greatest romantic epic poet in persian literature he was born and lived in ganja and there's also nizami mausoleum not far from the city a few kilometers northwest of ganja lies the 14th century imam zadeh mausoleum a sacred place in shia islam imam zadeh translates as the sons of prophets referring to the burial place of prophet ali's descendants ganja is surrounded by beautiful locations lush green meadows mountains and lakes for example lake goygod which literally means a blue lake it's a deep mountain lake surrounded by a dense forest it's just an hour away from the city it had been closed for some time because of the ongoing conflict with armenia and now only a small section is accessible to tourists so don't expect a day of hiking or exploring wow fantastic scenery right there are certain restrictions on taking pictures some objects you cannot take pictures of and also you cannot hire a boat i wanted to get a boat you know kind of go around the lake get some footage but it's impossible [Laughter] but driving to this place through the mountains and traditional villages is absolutely worth it you can also visit different remote locations in the mountains like guta bay a small town of 9 000 people it is absolutely picturesque so let's take a moment to enjoy the scenery i met a shepherd in the mountains so let's talk about foreign i ran into these guys at a local restaurant and they invited me to have some tea in the mountains great hospitality these are the guys gulva and roofied now let's travel to the very south of the country to the city of lankara lankara is a city in southern azerbaijan just 30 kilometers away from the border with iran so i found the central square of lancara and you know this region is famous for its agriculture it's enjoying the subtropical climate so you got lemons you got kiwi fruit you got a lot of other things that are growing so i wanted to visit a tea plantation and maybe a fruit farm the population is 88 000 people they call it the sri lanka of azerbaijan because this area gets the highest precipitation in the country among city sides are dosa park 18th centuries in dan fortress and han palace which has been turned into lankara museum of history and ethnography it's hot and i'm thirsty for some high quality tea so let's visit a tea plantation and they produced two black tea it's going to be black tea and how big is this plantation biggest yes 100 hectare this is the plantation of astrachai company it's 100 hectares and it's going to be nice black tea hello now it's time to drink my well-deserved cup of tea i also visited citrus garden and met some awesome people let's go for a walk around the garden so i have come to citrus valley and i came unannounced nobody's expecting me just walked in through the gate these are just gorgeous getting windy a little bit love it what's your name what's your name sarah so sarah are you going to show us the garden yeah kiwi fruit yeah but there's no kiwi right now right um flowers newborn baby ultras the best ones are in the top but these are many wow that's a lot it's really nice tangerine it's really pretty yeah so this is an orange come here there are bees oh bees right now it's a little lemon it's so cute let's give it a few months it'll grow [Music] so this is our cat he's seven month old he's a boy his name is and he's a pearson cat hello hello did you guys notice how fluent sarah's english was and no she's not american she's a girl from baku that goes to some international school so i came to this restaurant it's called dad house and i was recommended it so let's go and check it out [Music] so it's meat meat with pomegranates all right let's say goodbye to subtropical lankara and relocate to historical city that once stood on the silk road chicky chicky is a small town with a population of 68 000 people located on the forested slopes of the greater caucasus mountains it's renowned for its fascinating architecture food and hospitality one of the main draws is the country's newest unesco heritage site the shaky hans palace and this is the most famous building of shiki it's called shikihan's palace and it was built in 1763 and it belonged to shaky hans the roland family at that time the building has six rooms and two balconies and on the inside it's absolutely beautiful and you'll see a lot of examples of chebeke that is a special way of preparing steel glass besides the summer palace there's also the winter palace which was just recently discovered the most famous shakihan palace is the summer palace the one that i showed you before but this one's the winter palace of shaky hans and this is the one to get overlooked by tourists a lot you can easily spend a few days in chiqui visiting craft workshops museums wandering the charming backstreets and trying local cuisine like the local shiki specialty called pt which is a lamb and chickpea soup let me show you how to eat it first you tear apart some bread and you pour some broth on top of it and then the second stage is you smash and eat the rest so let's do it it started as a workers man meal because it's so substantial you get first course and the second course all in one meal also you have to try local desserts like shikihalwa or pachlava this type of halwa is thought to have originated in ancient mesopotamias the coolest place to stay in chicago is probably one of the most unique hotels in this area because it's been around since the 18th century and a lot of the traders back then were staying in it while they were on the way through the silk road it's an 18th century hotel the rooms have been converted from the original sleeping chambers that once housed silk road traders they're still very basic but it's all about the atmosphere as i entered the hotel i met ravana who happened to be the director of the hotel and she offered to give me a tour i said yes please a local football coach a great guy who's trying to encourage more girls to play soccer because the azerbaijani society is very conservative especially outside of baku and mostly expects women to become housewives cooks and doctors he invited me to come see one of the local games at the stadium wow it's hard to stay focused on the game in such a breathtaking place football come on you're in the city of chicken and i want you to meet my friend tyrell i was born in shecky i am a small businessman i have playstation club good what's your favorite game my favorite game is soccer do you want to live here forever or do you want to maybe travel the world maybe i want to go other country for my kids for education which country uh uk usa or other european countries okay the area around chiqui is incredible you can make day trips visit in waterfalls all bridges churches ancient defense towers and so much more make sure you do some hiking my friend aljun took me to perry gala which in azerbaijani literally means a fairy castle a limestone brick structure built 300 meters up the side of a cliff took a lot of effort to get there but it was worth it yesterday foreign about an hour away from shaquille find another popular town gabala [Music] once it was the ancient capital of caucasian albania but now it's a popular tourist destination with a winter skiing resort to vandak's key complex one of the best key resorts in azerbaijan unfortunately the cable car was closed during my visit so i had to express my anger and i went to the shooting club instead i have to say restaurants in gabola are some of the most impressive ones that i've seen they're huge like parks combine that with excellent food and service and you're not gonna live disappointed in gabala i met with tobacoo from wilderness cooking air fresh food it doesn't get better than this who runs a fantastic youtube channel about outdoor cooking and living in peace with nature and we cooked some delicious lamb i have a separate video about it if you haven't seen it check it out now let's relocate to another city that lies on the northeastern slopes of shaktak mountain cuba cuba has a population of 38 000 people it has enjoyed strong economic growth over the last decade much of it spurred by tourism some points of interest are jew mamas this mosque was built completely of red brick in 1802 nizami park that was built by captured germans in 1946 there are plenty of small booths where people can have lunch and get together with our friends have some tea because tea is a tradition right wonderful place wow nearby you'll find a unique settlement krasnodar sloboda or red village it was established in the 18th century by mountain jews who continue to live here today it's historically been inhabited by mountain jews and in fact this museum is called mountain jews museum red village is the only entirely jewish settlement outside of israel and the us and this one's one of the synagogues is located in a very picturesque place surrounded by forests and mountains from here you can take a trip to a high mountain village we'll be traveling to a very remote village this is the kind of road we'll be taking that's just the car for these roads you can get here in a regular car no problem it's about a 40 minute drive it's getting colder and we've already found some snow look real snow down below there's a river i'm telling you it's going to be scary oh boy sometimes the road gets so narrow and there's rocks on top when you're thinking something might follow my head right and luckily it hasn't been raining for the last few days so the road at least is dry it's an ancient village with a population of about 2 000 people going back to the caucasian albanian period it's located high up in the mountains 2000 meters above sea level surrounded by some of the highest peaks in azerbaijan and finally we've reached the village of canalic and it's pretty chilly out here you see i put on my sweater now this village is a pretty ancient one and it has very different traditions from from other regions they have their own language and because it's so hard to reach they kept a lot of their traditions that are very unique what's your name nice to meet you my name is lava you got some natural fertilizers straight from the cows and those are the houses mostly made of stone there's a local museum where you can see ancient carpets various house utensils pottery ceramic dishes and weapons also in this area you will find sharkduck mountain resort the first and the largest winter skiing resort in azerbaijan now let's talk about cuisine azerbaijani cuisine reflects its unique geographical location on the crossroads of europe and asia with an access to the caspian sea the azerbaijani breakfast is heavy in dairy products consisting of butter various types of white cheese cream as well as honey tandoori bread and eggs and lots of tea in baku a breakfast like this will cost you five to six dollars black tea is the national beverage and it's drunk after food is eaten it is also offered to guests as a gesture of welcome they drink tea from vermouth glasses sometimes rose water is added i was surprised to still boil water in heated metal containers known as some of ours which come from russia but in russia they're long forgotten there are lots of different dairy products like iron a savory dairy drink or dough a soup made from plain yogurt and herbs most national dishes are made with lamb beef and poultry meat lamb is very popular that's why in every village you will see plenty of sheep some of the most famous dishes are plov prepared with saffron covered rice served with various herbs and greens there are 40 variations of this dish a variety of kebabs shashlik and ribs dolma which is minced lamb or beef mixed with rice and flavored with mint fennel and cinnamon and wrapped in vine leaves kutab sort of pancake turnover topped with minced lamb cheese or spinach one of my personal favorites was three sisters known as uchbajji the three sisters of dolma stuffed eggplants peppers and tomatoes one dish that i don't recommend to you though is hush i tried it once and it was awful it contains boiled cow or sheep parts which might include the head feet and stomach it's extremely pungent in smell but it's known to battle hangovers light snacks and appetizers on the table are very important and every time i was having dinner with locals they always ordered way more food than we could have handled and of course the local delicacy is caspian sea caviar what about politics the current president of the country is ilham alive who succeeded his father haidar alive and has been in power since 2003 that is for 19 years zerbachan's best friend and strategic partner is turkey you'll see turkish flags everywhere they say one nation two states azerbaijan recently completed the southern gas corridor pipeline that is now bringing natural gas through turkey directly to europe and has significantly changed the energy map of europe the oil economy is also undergoing a resurgence with the development of the massive azeri chirag and ashley field and the construction of the bakut bilisi jihan pipeline allowing azerbaijan to get away from russia's fear of influence the conflict between armenia and azerbaijan of the highland region of karabakh had been going on since 1988. in november 2020 azerbaijani army took control of the city of shusha which is a tiny little town in the qarabak mountains with just 4 000 people but shusha according to the azeris has a symbolic meaning because until the middle of the 19th century shusha along with tabriz was considered the cultural and political center of the shiite turks a people that would later be called azerbaijanis hariburbul is one of the local flowers and a symbol of shusha [Music] azerbaijan has no trade with armenia and their border is closed all throughout the country will see political banners like this [Music] like i said at the beginning of the video people don't know much about azerbaijan and i had no idea what to expect is it safe is it not safe turned out it's very safe the country has very little crime but it comes with some restrictions the police presence in major cities is huge you cannot take pictures of certain government buildings normally if you see some armed security guards it's safe to say don't take that picture police stopped me a couple times and acquired what i was filming needless to say flying a drone is out of the question unless you find a local guy with a permit which is hard to get critical points despite economic growth in recent years most people living in rural areas still make low wages agriculture is a major source of employment for them but agriculture only makes up 6.7 percent of the gdp since 2022 the minimum pension was increased to 141 dollars a month what are the people like my impression was that people are very polite well-mannered and respectful i didn't see any drunks or a single fight in the street around 97 of the population are nominally muslims but in reality i was told many people don't go to the mosque outside of the capital city of baku people are very conservative let me give you an example we went to this restaurant in jaquie for a few beers and i couldn't find one single lady among the customers came to get some beer with my friends and one thing i noticed and one thing i noticed is that i don't see one single woman in the whole area and baku it's very different of course people have a lot of respect for the elderly they call them oxicol which literally means white beard so when you get old and grow white beard you become an oxicol and one of the respected leaders of the village men would normally get together in the evening to chat and play some table games the people of azerbaijan have retained a lot of their traditions like mogam music when performing mugam the singers have to transform their emotions into singing and music let's listen [Music] freestyle wrestling has traditionally been popular but currently the most popular sport is football azerbaijan is also one of the traditional powerhouses of world chess just think about gary kasparov is the population growing yes in 1960 it was 5 million in 2010 it was 9 million and in 2022 it's over 10 million any downsides unfortunately i've seen some garbage along the remote roads let me show you the trash problems everywhere look all covered in garbage gotta do some cleaning what else in transparency international's 2021 corruption perception index azerbaijan was ranked 128 compared to 45 for georgia and 58 for armenia on the bright side azerbaijan is becoming a popular tourist destination in this part of the world for religious spa and healthcare tourism most people come from russia georgia iran pakistan and turkey the number of visitors grew from 900 000 in 2006 to 3.1 million in 2019 and you can be one of them alright thanks for watching this video guys and let me know what you think about azerbaijan and if you would like to visit this country see in my next video [Music] ah [Music] foreign

Channel: CoolVision

Views: 2,702,366

Keywords: Azerbaidjan, Azerbajan, where is, is Azerbaijan arab, shusha, ganja, Is Azerbaijan an Arab country?, What country owns Azerbaijan?, Is Azerbaijan part of Europe or Asia?, Is Azerbaijan a good country?, Azerbaijan religion

Id: sG0JM9lChPk

Length: 41min 13sec (2473 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 26 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

sikim içini , bu nədi e ala . Yenicə yüklənmiş videonun altına uje ermənilərnən farslar doluşublar , propaganda aparırlar . Biri coca-cola söhbətini açıb , o biri gijdıllağ da ölkə haqqında hər positiv kommente cavab olaraq yazır ki , Azərbaycan fake ölkədir İrana məxsusdur , Azərbaycanlılar Türkləşmiş farsladır falan . İki dəqiqə girmişdim videoya baxım orda da əsəbimi pozdular bu amcıqlar .