Tuesday 18th June

This morning we took a closer look at Baku, starting in the Memorial Park overlooking the town & the sea. It reminded us of King's Park in Perth except that it had far more memorials from various conflicts. The most recent of these was the war with Armenia from 1992-1994 in which Ramin had served during his national service year. This one has not been fully resolved & the border between them remains closed & access to an isolated section of Azerbaijan is still only by road through Iran or by plane.

Another more surprising memorial was the British War memorial to soldiers & a sailor killed in 1918 from a British expeditionary force sent there after the collapse of the Turkish empire in WW1.

In a fine memorial to those lost in wars & massacres was a large eternal flame.

At the same level but away from the park are the trio of identical striking, tall, glass covered buildings which represent flames which can be seen from all over the city.

We descended in the bus down to the Carpet Museum in the sea front park & were guided through it. Apart from seeing the processes of carpet weaving we were somewhat disappointed in the exhibits themselves, as we had seen many fine examples before, on our travels.

From there we moved into the old city, quite near our hotel, starting at the Maiden's Tower, a fine round tower started in the 7th century & completed in the 13th century. The interior, completely renovated, houses many fine exhibits on the recently installed floors which showed various aspects of its life.

After a communal break for refreshment in the old city, we walked through to Shirvan Shah Palace from which the province was ruled for several hundred years until the Russians took control in the 1500s. This again has been carefully restored as a museum & we spent about an hour exploring its rooms, courtyard, bathhouse & tombs of the rulers.

Finally, we were led back to our hotel at about 3pm, & had a well-earned rest after a hard morning's tramp.

We were pleased to hear that, although the government is secular, it keeps tight control over the appointment of Imams & the construction & maintenance of mosques. It was fairly clear that interference or assistance from other Muslim nations is not encouraged by the state. Education, which is free, appears to be in government schools & health also appears to be largely government run here.

The general appearance is of a modestly comfortable existence for the majority although we were told that the currency had been devalued by 65% against the US$ a few years ago which had caused hardship. To date we haven't seen signs of homelessness or begging.

Wednesday 19th June

Today we left Baku travelling north about 380km to Sheki. Leaving the city we drove through a very arid area on the outskirts which reminded us of parts of WA, spotting the occasional herd of sheep & the winter homes & pens of the shepherds take the flocks into the mountains for the summer. Surprising to us was the presence of small butcher's shops, along the roadside at intervals, selling lamb.

Our first stop was in the town of Maraza, where we climbed up from a small valley to see the Baba Shrine where Dervishes had been buried. It was a strange experience as the tomb had been built into the hill side & after we had climbed past the chamber we emerged on the hillside & behind us was a farm close by.

As the main road climbed to higher ground there were grain fields either full of ripe barley or being harvested. Apparently, these are largely communally owned or are leased from the government by farmers. Another feature was the massive numbers of pine trees planted near the road all being watered with drip irrigation.

We visited the Juma mosque in Shemakha, where an early ruler of the province had had his capital & then a cemetery close to town where we saw the mausoleums for family members. These were octagonal stone buildings with brick domes above about 7m in diameter each housing 3 or 4 painted inscribed tombstones.

Next, we visited a family who demonstrated traditional ways to make various milk based products & fed us an excellent snack.

Leaving there we drove on a tortuous route, through the forest clad mountains, across some very wide river beds before descending to avenues of trees with many holiday parks & restaurants, designed to appeal to the people of Baku. The countryside reminded us of parts of the New Forest with cattle wandering freely on the roads & edges without any fear of vehicles. Some of the land was being farmed on a small scale & there were many villages & small towns.

By about 5pm we arrived in Sheki, a town of about 70,000 well known for its historical monuments. Here we visited Sheki Khan's Palace, a most unusual 17th century building inside a large stone walled, compound. The rooms are very ornately decorated in an Indo Persian style with fine stained glass windows made with elaborate framing in wood. From there we visited a workshop where we were shown how the framing is all cut to slot together to hold the glass in place.

Finally, we went to a fine Caravanserai before going to our hotel for the night.

Had an excellent farewell meal with our guide & turned in.