"Baku" Baku by gsd_1965

The capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, is located on the western shore of the Caspian Sea. This city with its beautiful gardens and fountains, elegant seaside promenade and cosmopolitan restaurants is rapidly establishing itself as the jewel of the Caucasus. Population (2004), 3,030,000. Azerie speaks Azerbaijanie language which is very similar to current Turkish. Baku still remains as the biggest populated locality on the entire western coast of the Caspian Sea.
The architecture in Baku is a wonderful mix of Oriental and European. Medieval mosques and baths have been preserved, providing a rare glimpse of the rich past.
Baku is a major cultural and educational center, with a university and other institutions of higher education. One of these specializes in the petroleum and chemical industries. The basis of Baku's economy is petroleum and natural gas. Other industries are shipbuilding and repair and the manufacture of electrical machinery. Chemicals, cement, textiles, footwear, famous Azeri carpets, and foodstuffs are also produced.
The first written reference to Baku dates from 885. A description of Baku during the Middle Ages was made by the native geographer Abd or-Rashid al-Bakuvi. In his work written in 1403, he writes: "the city has two extraordinarily fortified strong stone castles. One of them, the biggest, is near the sea, and the waves waste its walls. This is the castle, which the Tartars (Mongols) could not capture… A special feature of this city is the constant wind which is blowing day and night. Sometimes it is so strong that it is impossible for a man to go against the wind, horses and sheep in winter are often swept into the sea because they can not hold themselves on land. Here are deposits of tar and oil, oil is extracted daily for more than two hundred camel pack-loads. Near them, there is another oil spring, which is ceaselessly pouring out oil day and night, this oil is as white as jasmine oil, its rental estimates thousand dirharns. Near the oil-wells there is hard soil of yellow color, which burns like a candle. People break off pieces of it and take it back to the town for heating their houses and baths".
There are a few theories about the origin of the name, the most widely known being that Baku comes from bad kube, meaning "city of winds". Other theories suggest that the name dates back to Zoroastrianism and comes from the word Baga meaning the "the sun" or "the god" in a number of ancient languages. The natural and climatic conditions of the Absheron Peninsula played an important role in the formation of the urban structure of Baku in the Middle Ages. The curvilinear planning of streets not only assisted in stopping the gusts of the ice-cold North wind of Baku in winter, but also created coolness in day time, owing to the shadow falling from walls of houses in streets. The Russian traveller I. Berezin, who visited Baku in the middle of the XIX century described the streets of Baku as follows: "... they are so narrow and entangled, that after a month in Baku I did not know where a street began and where it ended". Though we do not object against the above-said, still we must note that this chaotic style of building had its advantages in defending the city from invaders, as well as for softening the gusts of the Baku winds. These winds were piercing through everything”.
Baku was under Persian rule from 1509 until 1723, when it was captured by the Russians; it was returned to Persia in 1735. In 1806 the city was again incorporated into Russia, and by the late 19th century it had begun its rapid economic growth. From 1918 to 1920 Baku was the capital of an anti-Bolshevik regime. After the Soviet victory over the republic, the Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic was declared in 1922, with Baku as its capital. Baku served as the capital of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic from 1920 to 1922 and from 1936 to 1991. In 1991 Azerbaijan became an independent republic.