Free Walking Tour of the Baku Old City

The back entrance to the Palace of the Shirvanshahs. Or maybe some other really old building.

The afternoon agenda was a guided, free walking tour, you know, one of those walking tours where the guide is paid with tips at the end and you pay what you think is fair. They have them in all the cities. And Baku is one of those "all the cities."

My guide, Azay, did a great job. And I was the only one on his tour.

I'm used to these free walking tours getting cancelled at the last second if not enough people sign up. I can't complain about that. You get what you pay for.

I was the only one on the tour, but Azay, being the consummate professional, did not cancel the tour. He made a scheduling error making a tour available today and when I signed up, he followed through. Yet another example of how amazing the people in Baku have been so far.

This is the Maiden Tower.

Landmark. One of the signature structures of the Old City. UNESCO World Heritage Site. The name comes from a legend about a young lady being imprisoned there -- perhaps so she would not marry an unsuitable suitor -- who threw herself off the top of the tower.

There's plexiglas walls at the top of the tower to prevent wannabe-Juliets from re-enacting that scene when their own love lives go bad.

Let's take a look-see inside the nearby Muhammad Mosque. It's named for a guy named Muhammad. Not "the" Muhammad.

Don't forget to remove your shoes first.

This mosque has some of the girthiest minarets (the towers from which the call to prayer is yelled)

I've ever seen.

I'm used to see extremely slender minarets where major claustrophobia would ensue if I tried to climb the stairs to the top of the tower.  This one is more functional.  The extra girth is recognition of the fact that this is earthquake country as the Arabian plate is in a state of constant war with the Eurasian plate. Hence all those massive earthquakes in Ian and Turkey. And, occasionally, Azerbaijan.

Another view of the Flame Towers.

This better be some foreshadowing for a different day of tourism.

Next up: the Museum of Miniature Books:

The books are really tiny. There is no way these old eyes could read the text printed within. But, hey, people were smaller back then. Maybe being smaller people meant you could read smaller print.

The smallest "book" is basically a micro-dot, you know, the kind they used in all those old spy movies from the 1960s. It comes with a magnifying glass to be able to read it. I think I would need some more powerful magnification to even have a chance.

This is a statue of the head of a man who had people for hair.

This is the Statue of Aliaga Vahid, a renowned Azerbaijani poet. He didn't really have people for hair. Or so they say. It symbolically metaphorical. He was a poet, after all.

The city walls that survived the Soviets:

A lot of the city walls -- again this not only being earthquake country but earthquake country populated by people who were smart enough to know it and to take proper architectural precautions -- were so solid that the Soviets knocked them down.

Fear that they could be used to protect a population in rebellion. But why would anyone rebel against the glorious workers' paradise that brought heaven to the earth populated by the Soviet people? </sarcasm>

We will end the tour by moseying down to the waterfront.

This is one of the kitschiest examples of tourism kitsch to be found in Baku.

I present to you:  Mini Venice!  "Canals" with gondolas.  But the gondoliers aren't singing "O Solo Mio" -- which you Elvis fans know as "It's Now Or Never" -- so the kitsch is lacking in the faux authenticity that makes the best tourism kitsch so irresistible. This was totally resistible.

But not this!

The Azerbaijan Carpet Museum. In a building shaped like a rolled carpet. This, my friends, is tourism kitsch done right. Form follows function indeed. Like the now-gone "Tail of the Pup" in L.A., a hot dog stand that operated from a building shaped like a hot dog -- this is a carpet museum in a building shaped like a carpet. And it's supposed to be a great museum. Another day.

More Flame Towers.

Tour ended. Guide tipped. Hopefully enough to reflect that this was a solo walking tour. Time to stroll back to the hotel or maybe get some dinner at one of the kebob restaurants everyone is telling me I need to try.

But, first, a walk past the Azerbaijan State Museum of Art. It's not supposed to be just a "modern art" museum filled with ugly trifles that could have been spat our by a four-year-old -- yes I do have an opinion on the subject of "modern art" that I have been known to express a time or two. But the lone sculpture outside screams "modern:"

I've seen worse. And I will probably see much much worse before my time on this planet comes to its end.

We end the tour with this building:

I like it. I guess I should find out what it is.

Postscript: I conked out when I got back to the room and went to sleep earlier than I should because I had zero energy. And what I expected to happen -- if I went to sleep too early -- did in fact happen. I woke up at 1:30 a.m. feeling as wide awake as I have felt in several days.