I had booked a city tour for a hundred dollars for the day. My trip started at about twelve in the afternoon, and the first stop was the plush park of Manzara. This is a beautiful park; it has an opulent restaurant, a fire temple, and one can climb up a hundred flights of stairs to get a clear view of the city of Baku.
I walked right up to the top to get a panoramic view of the city and took a peek at the Flame towers right behind the Caspian Sea. The view was breathtaking, but what caught my eye was the singing and dancing that was taking place right in front of me. There was a group playing the traditional musical instruments of Azerbaijan, namely the Lute, the Gobuz, and the Sentur. I watched them play as a few local women invited me to dance with them. So, without much ado, I started to dance with them. It was fun, and I needed some exercise to start my day. It really invigorated me and charged me up for my stroll across the many gardens and stone alleys of Manzara.
I had a lazy and late lunch at the Manzara restaurant that included roasted Bass fish with lemon and asparagus salad. I also managed to gulp down a cheesecake with some red wine, which is very sweet in this part of the world. After some rest, I began my walk across the park and the gardens of Manzara. What excited me most was the fire temple, which was burning bright as flames of fire lapped up in the air. Fire rituals and temples are very common in Azerbaijan and date back to the 10th century BC. This fire temple was built in the 17th century BC, and there was a gas vent which keeps the fire burning. These were holy places meant for sacrifices. Azerbaijan is also known as the land of fire, thanks to the vast supplies of oil and natural gas. Oil and natural gas are abundant in this country, and it is highly dependent on its oil and gas revenues, making it one of the top ten countries most dependent on fossil fuel exports.
Fire temples are a common sight in this part of the world. A fire temple Agiary, Atash Kadeh, or Der e Mehar is the place of worship for the followers of Zoroastrianism. Fire, known as Atar, and pure water, known as Aban, are agents of ritual purity.
Baku is also known as the Black city as it became the hub for Azerbaijan’s oil industry, and the name Black City came from the smoke and soot that came out of the oil refineries in the region.
The City of Baku is renowned for its harsh winds, and I got a feel of that the very night I landed. It does get windy and cold in the evening here, and that is why Baku is also called the City of Winds.
Manzara also has cemeteries of dead and slain soldiers who gave their lives for the freedom of the country, and I made it a point to walk amongst their graves and also paid my respects to them.
My next stop on my city tour was the Heydar Aliyev Centre, a 57,500-meter building complex in Baku designed by Iraqi British architect Zaha Hadid, noted for its distinctive architecture and flowing curved style. Heydar Alvin was the first secretary of Soviet Azerbaijan and also the president of the Republic from 1993 to 2003. The Center is used for exhibitions and art and dance performances. It has a gallery hall, an auditorium, and plays an important role in the intellectual life of the people of Baku. I got so engrossed with the place that I almost lost my taxi driver and forgot where my taxi was parked. I struggled for half an hour to finally make contact with my driver.
It was now late afternoon, and our last stop was the famous Baku Zoo. The entry ticket is 50 Manat, and the zoo is fabulous, a perfect place for families to take the little ones for a picnic and expose them to the wonders of the animal kingdom. The zoo has wild animals, birds, and even fishes and reptiles. All of them are barcodes, but one can get a close look at the animals and take photographs as well. I spent hours getting pictures of two huge tigers that roamed the zoo. I also enjoyed gazing at the Zebra and the peacock; they were a treat to watch. I spent the entire evening roaming around the zoo, admiring its wildlife and getting a lot of pictures. The city tour ended by seven o’clock in the night, and I was duly driven back to my hotel by my driver, who was only too happy to show me around the fabulous city of Baku.