Walled city of Baku and Maiden Tower

Old Fortress (Old City, Inner City, Icheri Sheher, İçəri şəhər) is the historical core of Baku, the Capital of Azerbaijan. Though it is the most ancient part of the city, it is still a well preserved historical and architectural site surrounded by fortress walls.

GPS coordinates for Garmin/Navitel: N40.366006, E49.837389

The fortress is a good place to have a walk with your family. Magnificent fountains,

narrow streets,

small bazaar,

remarkable sights – all of this will please even the most experienced tourists. Everyone will find some lovely place!

Among these sights are:

– Maiden Tower,

– Palace of the Shirvanshahs,

– Numerous mosques,

– Bath houses,

– Museums (picture shows the Museum of Miniature Books, the largest book on this photo is not larger then a matchbox).

Maiden Tower

One of the most ancient and mysterious buildings of the Old City is the Maiden Tower (Azerbaijani: Qız Qalası). Why is it so mysterious? Because no one knows neither its initial purpose, nor the origin of its name. This tower is like a true lady – it doesn’t even tell her age to anyone. Even scientists cannot determine its true age. The tower is a part of UNESCO World Heritage Site list.

We were lucky to touch ancient stones of this architectural monument in December 2013. It is cylindrical eight story structure that rises to a height of 28 meters with a base diameter of 16.3 meters. The height of the tower (it is quite huge for ancient times) allows us to assume its military purpose. Moreover, waters of the sea were much closer to the tower then today – sea waves were dashing against the rocks of the tower.

The width of tower walls seems to be too huge – 5 meters at the base, 4 meters at the top. Breaking that wall into bricks will produce the number of bricks that will be enough to surround the Old City by the wall. It doesn’t seem to be expedient to build a small tower with large material waste. Later, when the city became larger, it was surrounded by the fortress wall and the tower became the part of that wall. It was quite logical to assume the military purpose of the tower, but latest researches proved that it could never be used in that way. Neither its form, nor its internal construction is suitable for using in battles. For example, there are just few windows around the tower. And all of these windows are located on the staircase, not on the floors. The direction of these windows is also “wrong” for the purpose of fighting – it is easier to see the sky, then the ground.

One more assumption is that the tower was built as an observatory. Its windows are located in a way that one planet of our Solar System can be visible through each window (at least it was so in 6th century). Also researchers found out that on the day of winter equinox (December 22th) sun’s rays are getting into the central window of the Maiden Tower and then, with some regularity, to other windows above. The winter equinox day is a day of worship in some ancient cults. Can the tower be the place of worship for earlier pre-islamic period? Moreover, there are several ceremonial wells around the tower base.

In 13-14 centuries, the Maiden Tower was being used as a lighthouse.

But what is the date of building of this architectural monument? Some researchers suppose that the tower was built during first centuries of A.D., others after analysing the mortar used to build the tower found out that it should have been built in 6th century A.D. Also it is considered that the tower was built in two stages: lower part was built in 5-6th centuries, upper part was finished in 12th century (it is the age of plate with scripts located on the outer part of tower).

The origin of tower’s name is also not clear. Most of the legends refer to the word “maid”. One of these legends say that shah fell in love with his own daughter and decided to marry her. While trying to avoid her fate, she asked shah to build the tower first. The tower was built and shah didn’t change his decision… So young maid plunged into the water from the top of the tower and died. That’s why the tower was called Maiden Tower.

Biblical legend says that one of twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, st. Bartholomew, was executed near this tower. Bartholomew appeared in Baku in 1st century A.D. He was spreading christianity among heathens, but his doctrine was rejected and he was executed near Maiden Tower’s walls.

Nowadays, the tower is an attraction for numerous tourists, the source of inspiration to artists, poets and dramatists. It fascinates everyone trying to find secrets of this unassailable beauty. Who knows, may be it is you who will solve all puzzles and find all secrets?

Don’t forget to get a guide! There are a lot of guides nearby 😀

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