Empty Baku

Baku has done plenty of building and urban renewal to remake itself as a modern, architecturally significant world city. Sometimes your master plan starts with a big layout and then you let the buildings fill in during the next decade or so. That empty, public space can have an interesting life of its own.

Big promenade on the Caspian Sea.

Parking lot with weakly disguised construction fence. Promoting the future park. Construction. Building up.

Graphic. Explosive. A picture along the fence line of an open air military equipment museum.

Approaches. To the Crystal Hall and a pier in the promenade.

The future meeting the distant present. The iconic Flame Towers in the background, ribbon of promenade waiting for development in the foreground. 

Proud Plaques In Baku

Your Name and Likeness here. If you were important, famous, powerful and had an apartment, after you die, the community might put up a fancy wall plaque on the outside of the building. A lasting marker to your success. We knew him when, where he got his mail, took out his garbage.

The plaques are elaborate, tripping into marble frieze, high relief, almost a full blown sculpture. This gentleman is identified as a famous statesman

Usually there are artistic hints at the person's occupation. Here's a Jewish writer, complete with fluttering papers. Mazel tov. Next, a "legendary singer." His voice was rays of bliss.

Military might. No bio, all you need to see is the fancy epaulets.

Big in biz. The oil rig in the background tells you he was a pioneer in the country's oil and gas development. Artist and composer, with requisite high collar and brooding expression. He's so creative!

A famous folk poet. So important, make sure the electric wire goes around, not through him. Detour for greatness.

Visiting The Alley Of Honor Cemetery In Baku

If you're a big shot in Azerbaijan, you may end up in the Alley of Honor cemetery, sculpture park. The place is reserved for the leaders of yesterday, the heroes of government, design, the arts. Maybe a woman or two.

Starting off big, the impressive grave, monument to the third president of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev. The plot comes with its own gardener.

The graves are not some simple affair, no basic headstone with a generic, "With Love" etching. Here's a statue of a famous mathematician and some sort of doctor, scientist. Casual, confident poses and maybe a piece of your, err, equipment helps sell your significance.

A nod to Soviet socialist style. The park was opened in 1948.

You can take it with you! At least part of a piano and the keyboard from the movie Big. Found, a woman. Not an easy discovery among the endless guys. Her pose says, "Hmph, took you long enough."

There are cute moments to be had. Father and son, forever united. "Dad, do you like my model?"

Treasures At The Palace of the Shirvanshahs

The old city section of Baku has a nice museum, housed in a former fancypants place built by the Shirvanshahs in the early 1500s. The family ruled Shivran, the name of the ancient land that is now present day Azerbaijan.

Fancy fountain courtyard, the front entrance to the big pad.

Inside, the palace is more museum, less rich family period rooms. Really nice red rugs. Horsey things.

Slipper bling. The rich lounge differently from us. Us being Sarah and James. We don't know about you.

Cool octagonal sanctuary out-building.

Around back, a jagged finish to the palace and an endless ring of old, stone tablets.

Walking The Streets Of Old City Baku

Baku likes to present itself as a cutting edge, modern metropolis on the Caspian Sea. All the new architecture says so. There is still an old, original core neighborhood, well preserved and a nice piece of history that is a refreshing diversion for visiting.

Imposing. The big Maiden Tower, kind of a Welcome to the Old City landmark.

A typical street, pedestrian sized, cobblestones, wood balcony, quaint. Another landmark, the Juma mosque.

The covered arcade of Bazar Square.

A little modern life in the old city, a giant mural. Birds and blossoms. A little ancient life, foundation remnants of a bathing complex.

On guard. Much of the old city sits within impressive, castle-like tall walls.

Soaking Up The Samad Vurgun House Museum In Baku

The Soviets were big on turning your house into a museum, especially if you were famous and a loyal party member. Samad Vurgun was a poet, dramatist, public figure, academician. And a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Congratulations, comrade, your house is now a museum.

Wall of fame. If someone paints your portrait, you hang it up. More paintings, more hangings.

Office, where the master wrote. And listened to music, maybe read, nibbled a sandwich, solved some sudoku. A case holding his hunting gear. And dombra instrument. Look, another portrait, appropriately placed near similar props.

Grand, green living room.

Various identification cards for The Party. Hey, the country was a Union shop. Pink bedroom, perhaps letting the wife win the decorating battle.

Death mask, a thing back in the communist day. Vurgun died in 1956.

Martyr's Lane Cemetery In Baku

Think of the hilltop cemetery, memorial known as Martyr's Lane as a sort of Arlington National Cemetery for fallen soldiers, rebels, revolutionaries, and other arms-strapped heroes of various battles that took place in Azerbaijan. Does that sum it up?

Looking down the actual "lane" of the complex toward the big Shahidlar Monument. Plaques along the lane are reserved for fighters against the Soviet Army during the struggle for independence in 1990.

Another view of the rows of plaques and a look at other graves, many decorated with ribbons, flowers. Everyone remembers.

The etching on black granite is an opportunity for everlasting remembrance. Once a beloved camcorder, always a beloved camcorder. And jean jacket.

Flowers by Shahidlar Monument. The memorial is the focus of the cemetery and it houses an eternal flame. The British are here. Their memorial marks the death of 47 soldiers from the Commonwealth during WWI.

And so are the Turks, with their own WWI memorial. Bring the family, record history. And shoot something for your Instagram stories channel.

Arresting Architecture In Baku

Plenty of cool buildings to look at in the old city by the Caspian Sea. Baku is famous for its clash of modern, statement buildings, sprouting among the more traditional, old fabric of the city. New baubles abound, ready to soak up your gaze.

Let's start with a look up at the famous Flame Towers, the unofficial symbol of modern Baku. Is James Brown nearby? He used to front a group called the Famous Flames, for those peeps who somehow are not familiar with the Godfather of Soul. Shame on you.

The second most famous landmark, the Heydar Aliyev Centre. The curves just keep coming. Alas, those curves are not self cleaning and a crew on what looks like mini hockey rink smoothing Zamboni machines is busy doing a wet dusting.

Funky funicular station. Keeping with the James Brown theme. Not that he ever sang about a funicular. Did anyone?

It's not all building from scratch. There's an arts, entertainment district that contains some nice rehab work. The Stone Chronicle Museum is in an old power plant building. A nightclub and restaurant complex took over some former warehouses.

Some giant dropped his ring. The snazzy arena, Crystal Hall.

At the end of the day, commerce has to justify the statement, right? The city's major shopping mall on the water, Deniz Mall. Big billiard balls out front are promoting the lottery. Commerce contained, all fenced off. It turns out, the iconic Flame Towers are mostly empty and closed. A hotel is open and so is an investigation into the possibility that the project is built on unstable ground. Occupy at your own risk.

The near future, the soon* to open giant Crescent Bay, the latest icon of the growing city.

*Soon is relative, original opening date was sometime in 2015.