Oil Heritage & Old Town Walking Tour of Baku

Oil Heritage & Old Town Walking Tour of Baku

This is a walking tour to discover the reflection of Baku’s past and hear about oil barons of the first oil boom era and their quest for personal glory and fame. The tour offers insider's guide to urban exploration about social, cultural, political aspect of every-day life in Baku with background of stories based on real life of oil barons from late 19th and early 20th century as well as soviet and modern times.

The tour highlights how oil changed Baku as as the new generation of the first era of oil boom assumed their social responsibility for a change in an oriental conventional Muslim society. You will hear stories about Azerbaijan’s dilemma of East vs. West, oil barons’ hunger for personal glory and fame, Influence of Polish architects, change and continuity through times under imperial Russia,
Soviet and Independent Azerbaijan.

Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product

Stop At: Fountain Square, Baku Azerbaijan

Fountains Square is downtown, entertainment and leisure centre in Baku. However, this neighborhood emerged as main trading street of boom town during the first oil boom era, late XIX and early XX century. This is where we meet and end the tour.

Duration: 30 minutes

Stop At: Baku Old City, Neftchilar Ave, Baku 1000 Azerbaijan

Known as Icherisheher, Old Town in Baku houses four UNESCO's World Heritage sites. We will walk and stop to offer explanation without entering the sights (Museums of Shirvanshahs Palace and Maiden Tower) with historic photos.

The sites covered are :
1. Gosha Gala gate (Main entry to Old City)
2. Citadel Walls (XII century, UNESCO site)
3. Maiden Tower, XII cent (No entry, however explanation is offered at entry)
4. Muhammad Mosue (XI century, UNESCO site)
5. Stroll through narrow streets in Old City
6. Shirvanshakh’s Palace, XV cent (No entry, however explanation is offered at entry)
7. Museum of Miniature Books
8. Vahid Garden and Aliaga Vahid Statue
9. Gasimbek’s Bath House
10. Salyan Gate (one of two original entry gates of Old City)


Duration: 2 hours

Stop At: Istiglaliyyat Street, Baku Azerbaijan

Formerly Nikolayevskaya and Kommunisticheskaya, the Istiglaliyyat Street was one of the main streets of Imperial Russian time Baku. Here we will explore urban transformation that brought by oil barons and their quest for personal glory and fame

The attractions covered are:

1. Governor’s Garden (XIX cent)
2. Town Hall (1904)
3. Philharmonic Hall (1910-1912)
4. Sadikhov Brothers Residence (1911-1912)
5. Palace of Happiness (Mukhtarov Palace, 1912)
6. Institute of Manuscripts of Azerbaijan (first school for Muslim women, XX cent)
7. Ismaliyya Palace (Muslim Charitable Society, 1913)
8. Sabir Garden and Sabir Statue, 1922
9. Literature Museum and the statue of Nizami

Duration: 1 hour