Talk:Baku

This article was the Collaboration of the week between 28 May 2007 and 3 June 2007.

I took this out of the Do section, as I don't think it should go there, but I can't think where else to put it in the guide - possibly because it probably shouldn't be in a travel guide... -- (WT-en) Tim (writeme!) 04:01, 29 May 2007 (EDT)

===Conference Centers===
*Baku Business Center (Baku Biznes Mərkəzi, Denizkenari Milli Park (bulvar)) tel: 994 012 4-97-3240; fax: 994 012 4-97-3180; e-mail: bbc@bbc-az.com. 
This building has been in use since 2 February 2004 with exhibition halls equaling nearly 1,100 square meters.  This building has conference rooms 

equipped with projectors and a speaker system and a meeting hall with a 80 person capacity and conference hall with a 130 person capacity.

Guys, can you try to shift the pictures to wikivoyage Shared? The Japanese version needs the pictures from the English version. (WT-en) Cupcakecommander 01:57, 23 July 2007 (EDT)

This is a Guide and will eventually be a good dotm. However, this article clearly needs updating, as for example there is a summer train schedule from 2010. I've started copy editing, but we need to do more than just copy edit this article to prepare it for a dotm nomination. I haven't read through the whole article yet. What else does it need? Ikan Kekek (talk) 10:02, 23 March 2015 (UTC)Reply

All ! Can you please check data of vessels arriving to Baku ? I am sure that vessels from/to Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan serve by Port Alat. -Ismail Khatai-~~13:02, 10.09.2016~~

The vessles to KAZ are still elaving from Alat, which is a huge pain to get into. -willthewanderer

All ! Map of Baku and Absheron need to be developed ! Can anyone join the project ? I will provide all necessary information for the map

Could someone add any descriptions of the bars in the city, just having a list and a phone number isn't particularly usefull. google could do that for you and we arn't the yellow pages, are any of these recomended?

also the Old city is just a wall of text, the maiden tower section is writen like war and peace; yet many other listing lack and description at all.

smells likea well meaning but half finished job from a tourism professional.

Hi, willthewanderer. Remember this is a free travel guide that anyone can edit, including you. You are very welcome to make changes to this article as you see fit. Probably best if you create an account, though that is not compulsory. Hope to see you implementing your suggestions soon. Best wishes, ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 18:34, 28 November 2017 (UTC)Reply

Lol, that was funny - the War and Peace reference. I think those descriptions for the listings in the 'See' section were taken word-for-word from their respective Wikipedia entries, where they were evidently written by an expert în her field known as Ladytimide, or maybe another. They really are something, like having to decipher an archeology lexicon. Lazarus1255 (talk) 12:30, 10 March 2021 (UTC)Reply

Anyway, I will take the liberty of editing these expansive entries a bit by editing out some of the commentary for each and putting it here:

The Palace of the Shirvan Shahs: The big lancet portal directly leads from the courtyard to the second floor, into a high octahedral lodging covered with a cupola. A small, also an octagonal vestibule, located behind it, connects it with the rest of the lodgings in the palace. - Divankhana is a small stone pavilion. It is situated inside a small courtyard surrounded by a gallery-arcade on three sides. The Divankhana pavilion consists of an octahedral hall covered with a stone cupola both inside and outside. The well-proportioned high portal of the main entrance is decorated with an ornament and Arabic inscription. The ornament pictures the interlacing fig and vine leaves. The portal is also decorated with two medallions inside of which there are inscriptions in Kufic Arabic. - The Mausoleum of the Shirvanshahs is of a rectangular shape and crowned with a hexahedral cupola which is decorated from outside with multi-radial stars. The inscription on the entrance doorway indicates the purpose of the building, "Khalilullah I, the greatest Soltan, Great Shirvanshah, the namesake of the divine prophet, the defender of the religion ordered to construct this light burial-vault for his mother and son in 839" (1435–1436). On two drop-shaped medallions in the flannel parts of the portal there are inscriptions with the architect's name - Memar Ali (architect Ali). - The Palace Mosque (1430s) is situated in the lower court of the complex. The laconicism of its prismatic volumes, completed with two slightly pointed cupolas, is shaded by a well-proportioned vertical line of the minaret rising above in the north-eastern corner of the building. There are 2 chapels for prayers in the mosque: a hall of a large size for men and a hall of a small size for women, also a couple of small subsidiary rooms. There is an inscription laid under the stalactite belt of the minaret which reads, "The greatest Soltan Khalilullah I ordered to build this minaret. May Allah exalt the days of his governing and reign. The year of 845" (1441–1442). - Seyid Yahya Bakuvi's Mausoleum is situated in the southern part of the complex. Seyid Yahya Bakuvi was a royal scholar in the court of Shirvanshah Khalilullah. The Mausoleum is of an octahedral shape and covered with an octahedral marquee. It consists of ground and underground parts. The upper part of the Mausoleum served to perform the cult rites, and the lower one housed the sepulchral vault. There are three small lancet windows with a stone bar - shabaka on the southern, eastern and western verges of the Mausoleum. - The Shirvanshahs' Palace complex also includes the portal of Eastern Gates, the so-called "Sultan Murad's Gate" (1585). It was built within the walls of the citadel rather later than all the other constructions of the complex during Ottoman occupation of 1585-1603. The gates were named by them in honor of Sultan Murad III. - The Palace Bath-house is situated on the lowest terrace of the complex. It was discovered in 1939 and dates to 17th century. The archaeological excavations exposed a big bath-house consisting of 26 rooms. On the basis of the surviving remains of the walls of the bath-house one can say that its rooms used to be covered with cupolas and the light penetrated through the openings in the cupolas. The bath-house was semi-underground for keeping the heat in winter and the cool in summer. Maiden's Tower: Each floor of the tower has a shallow vaulted roof, "a stone cupola" that has a central opening. The thickness of the walls varies from 5 m at the base tapering cylindrically to 3.2–4.2 m at the top floors. All floors are connected by staircase which abuts the circular wall and are lighted by narrow windows or niches which flare inward. The structure built in stone masonry exhibits varying finished surfaces, which is inlaid with local grey limestone. The alternate courses of stone laid in gypsum plaster gives a black and white banded effect. The northwestern part of the tower retains the original surface finish. There is also a beak-like projection, a buttress, curved in shape, made in masonry. The earliest stonework has square corners.
A detailed examination of the construction features of the tower by archaeologists suggests that the stone masonry, both on its interior and exterior surfaces, is diamond shaped and is seen at the top as well as at the bottom of the tower wall. The diamond shaped cut seen as a decorative feature, particularly on the outer face of the west side wall, is ornate at the top and plain at the bottom of the wall; a subtle feature noted throughout the tower suggests that it was built as one monolith unit at one period. However, the renovations are crude.
Water Well: Another notable structure seen in the tower is a water well of 0.7 m diameter, which is 21 m deep (its depth is up to the aquifer) that has been discovered at the second floor of the tower. It has an entrance also at the ground level which was discovered by archaeologist Abbas Islamov during a study of the tower. This well has been interpreted as rainwater harvesting structure and the water is said to be clean and fresh (though close to the sea). The ceramic pipe (30 cm in diameter) plumbing seen running down from the niches of the tower into the well was meant as a supply source. Since the ancient plumbing system is said to be in its original form, it needs to be cleaned and its layout ascertained by further studies to describe the drainage network that was built as part of the tower. The ceramics of the plumbing system and the silt deposited in them could also help to fix the age of the tower by using thermo-luminescence technique
Also seen in the tower, between the 2nd floor and the 7th floor, is a gutter of semicircular shape at every floor. It is made of ceramic pipes fitted one above another and joined by lime mortar. The pipes are presumably produced with the potter's wheel technique. They are 20–25 cm in diameter with 2.2 cm thick walls and each segment is 40–45 cm long. Similar gutters are seen from the ground floor up to the foundation level but with the four cornered ceramic pipes of 22 cm × 18 cm size, which run outside through the wall.
Bibi-Heybat Mosque: The top of the thread and stalactites, raised by a small pillar, surmounted by a semicircular dome of Rebrov. Railing minarets were patterned with stone grill. Graphic studies showed that the height of the minaret was about 22 m.
The rich interior of the complex has been decorated with ornaments. The inside of mosque included an oblong rectangular room with a lancet arch. Under the dome, there were chandelier-candlestick (shamdan), and a hook on which it hung was surrounded by stained glass. - On the north side of the minaret and the mosque immediately adjoining the tomb, there was an inscription which was discovered by Johannes Albrecht Bernhard Dorn. From the inscription it was clear that this mausoleum was built in 1619 and interred here by Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Bin Abid, who died the next day after work.
The modern restored mosque is a classic example of the Shirvan architectural school. The mosque has three domes, which have kept the traditional corrugated galvanised iron shape of the old mosque and two minarets. The domes are decorated with the green and turquoise mirrors, which are bordered with gilded inscriptions from Qur'an. Men's praying room is located on the south side of the complex, while women - on the north side. Between them is the mausoleum.
The builders used local varieties of limestone such as Gulbaht. On the inside the walls of marble carvings with calligraphic inscriptions such as muhaggah, Suls, Jami-Suls, Kufic, kufi-shatrandzh, musalsag, sofa and tugra. Also widely used such ornamental compositions as islimi, shukyufa, Bandy-Rumi, zendzhiri Selcuk (Seljuk chain), Shamsi, Jafari and Achma-yumma.

I created a new alternative banner for this article (I initially created it first and foremost so that it would be used at the top of the parallel article in the Hebrew edition of Wikivoyage, yet I later decided to also suggest that the English Wikivoyage community would consider using it here as well). So, which banner do you prefer having at the top of this article? ויקיג'אנקי (talk) 08:28, 13 September 2018 (UTC)Reply

The current one with the blue sky. Ikan Kekek (talk) 09:51, 13 September 2018 (UTC)Reply

Top one is better to me. It's a bit clearer. ChubbyWimbus (talk) 12:01, 13 September 2018 (UTC)Reply

* Current banner. --Comment by Selfie City (talk about my contributions) 14:35, 13 September 2018 (UTC)Reply

Also prefers the top. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 22:28, 13 September 2018 (UTC)Reply

• These banners (both) are awful to represent Baku. They are old and look like any other large city and not like Baku.

I added an additional proposal that also includes some landmark buildings.

How about it? Cheers Ceever (talk) 11:14, 16 December 2019 (UTC)Reply

See how Ceever's banner looks in situ here: User:ThunderingTyphoons!/sandbox/Banners. It looks a bit empty to me, possibly because the city name obscures two of the landmarks, but if you think it represents Baku better, I can support it over a generic skyline shot.--ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 14:11, 22 December 2019 (UTC)Reply

• The first two are, I agree, generic. Ceever's banner, despite its faults is distinctive. That would be my choice, followed by the current one. Ground Zero (talk) 14:20, 22 December 2019 (UTC)Reply
• My favorite is now #3. --Comment by Selfie City (talk | contributions) 14:28, 22 December 2019 (UTC)Reply

I have changed to the new banner per the current consensus. --Comment by Selfie City (talk | contributions) 17:07, 22 December 2019 (UTC)Reply

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion:

• Baku Olympic Stadium, in Azerbaijan.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 05:36, 15 December 2019 (UTC)Reply

Seems to be a clear case: freedom of panorama on architecture is restricted to non-commercial use and when the work (building) is not the main feature of the image. We should decide whether we want it uploaded locally as fair use, preferably before it gets deleted. --LPfi (talk) 18:34, 22 December 2019 (UTC)Reply

There may be the same or similar problems with a few other images used in the article – including the new banner. --LPfi (talk) 18:37, 22 December 2019 (UTC)Reply

We have featured few articles from the Caucasus. Would this article do as Dotm? Which improvements are needed? /Yvwv (talk) 18:41, 9 February 2022 (UTC)Reply

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• The opening ceremony of the first European games 7.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 08:11, 22 December 2022 (UTC)Reply

Freedom of panorama issue; will probably be deleted. I assume there are better images of the stadium (this image is not primarily about the opening, but the stadium building in the night, with a bus passing in the foreground), but knowing which one to ask to be restored for copying is difficult. Now checking, it seems the image isn't used on this page. The page could use some more images, though, and having a Commons admin (is there any at Wikivoyage?) go through images mentioned in the Commons:Category:Azerbaijani FOP cases/deleted pages could get us some nice ones. One could also go through Commons:Category:Baku for images without copyright issues. –LPfi (talk) 08:54, 22 December 2022 (UTC)Reply