Baku: World City at the Continental Cross Roads Quiz

Answer: Eastern Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea

Azerbaijan is located in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia, straddling Western Asia and Eastern Europe, hemmed in with rugged mountains to the north, Armenia to the west, an inland sea to the east, and with its southern region contiguous with northeastern Iran. As such Azerbaijan has been culturally more influenced by Asia than by Europe.

Baku is the largest city of Azerbaijan and its capital city. Baku is located on the Caspian Sea, specifically on the Bay of Baku on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula.

Even though oil was abundant centuries before, the first oil boom in Azerbaijan was in the late 1800s. Surface wells were used due to the oil not being so deep. Now that the surface oil has been extracted, deeper wells are necessary. Oil rigs are prevalent just off Baku in the Caspian Sea.

Phoenix Rising's jaknginger added this question to the Red Crew quiz.

Answer: The old city is surrounded by a fortified wall

The Old City was surrounded by thick fortress walls, some of which remain intact today. Until the 1850s, the city was surrounded by a double fortress wall on land and a large earth barrier facing the Caspian Sea. On the southern section of the earth barrier, there were two additional walls, perpendicular to the barrier, running out into the sea, which created a sheltered harbour for marine merchant traffic. Additionally, there was a ditch built on the land side which when under siege conditions could be filled with water. The inner wall dates back to the 12th century, the outer wall to the mid-18th century.

After 1870, the oil boom meant the city was too big for the fortress city so the city spread beyond the walls. It was petitioned to knock down the wall which was not permitted (but some of it was destroyed anyway), but the ditch around the walls was filled in.

The Shah Abbas gate (pictured) located right in front of the Shamakhi gate in the inner wall was the main gate in the outer wall. After orders were given to demolish the outer wall, artisans, to commemorate the Shah Abbas gate, decided to make an identical gate and 'relocate' it to the inner wall of the Baku fortress. It is this gate that represents the Old City when it was a complete fortress.

Baku's Old City was included by UNESCO into the World Cultural Heritage List in 2000.

This quiz question was fortified by Phoenix Rising's 1nn1.

Answer: Shirvanshah

The palace called the Palace of the Shirvanshahs has been named a UNESCO site. The Shirvanshah dynasty was in power from the mid-9th to early 16th century, arising from one family, the Yazidis. There are no inscriptions on the palace to aid with dating its history, but the date of construction has been inferred from an inscription on an associated tomb and mosque stating that Shirvan Khalil ordered the building - his reign extended from 1417-1462. The complex currently houses a museum.

Buildings that remain include the main palace, burial vaults, a mosque with minaret, a mausoleum for a prominent Sufi saint, a gate, reservoir and remnants of a bathhouse. The palace was once surrounded by walls that have since disappeared. Images of the palace appear on Azerbaijani currency. During Russian occupation, the military turned part of the palace into a warehouse for equipment. Restoration began in the 1920s and has continued since.

Player pusdoc of Phoenix Rising is dynastically ignorant - she never watched "Dynasty" and never heard of the Shirvanshahs before this question.

Answer: Fortress

The heavily fortified structure of the Maiden Tower is anchored to a rock that sloped, at one point, into the Caspian Sea (though it is a block back from the waterline now). The structure was once an extension of the fortified walls surrounding the city. The structure is 26m tall, 16-16.5 meters in diameter and rises eight storeys and as such, towers above all the Old City buildings. Its architectural plan consisted of cylindrical walls which, at the base, are five metres in thickness and gradually narrow to four meters at the top.

On the southern side of the tower are narrow slits about 1.7 m through which the sun enters to light the internal chambers. Attached on the eastern side, pointing out towards the sea, is a narrow trapezoidal-shaped integral annex whose function has never been fully explained.

Originally meant to be a fortress, to prevent invasion from the Caspian Sea, the tower was contiguous with the fortified walls of the city. It has, at times, served as a fire beacon, defensive fortification and astronomical observatory, and may have been a Zoroastrian temple. There are gaps in its recorded history; however, there are plenty of legends about the tower which may or may not be true. Most revolve around the word "Maiden". According to the majority of versions, a noble girl, possibly a princess, ordered the tower to be built and then either locked herself in or threw herself from the top into the sea below. This, apparently, was due to the king, the girl's father, who loved her and wanted to marry her. But she delayed her father's advances by begging him to build the tower and wait until it was finished. When completed several years later, the father was still in love with the girl, so it was then she jumped off the tower into the sea. In one version after she jumped, her (real) lover sought revenge. He avenged her death by killing her father but then discovered that mermaids had rescued his lover. Of course, he found her again and they married.

This question was written by Phoenix Rising's 1nn1 who is a sucker for a happy ending.

Answer: Islam

Azerbaijan's main religion is Islam, particularly of the Shia sect. According to the "Encyclopedia of Islam" Iran has the highest population percentage of Shia Muslims, followed by Azerbaijan. There are over 100 mosques in Baku.

One extraordinary mosque is the Heydar Mosque named after former president Heydar Aliyev. Taking two years to build, it was completed in 2014. The mosque covers 12000 square meters. It has four minarets sitting on 12,000 square meters of land. Despite being a modern structure, it was built in the style of Shirvan-Absheron. It is a symbol of peace, tolerance and unity and was named for President Heydar Aliyev.

The mosque Bibiheybat, (pictured) also known as Fatima Mosque, was a 13th-century mosque that was destroyed by the Russian Bolsheviks in 1936. It was re-constructed in 1994. It became a major tourist attraction. The mosque is dedicated to Ukeyma Khanum who is buried there. She is a female descendant of the prophet Muhammad.

Jaknginger added this question to PR's Red Crew team quiz.

Answer: Museum

The Fire Temple was built in Surakhany, an area in Baku where perpetual fires burned due to oil and natural gas seeping from the ground. These fires have been burning for an estimated 4000 years. Built as it was around one such eternal flame, it gave the temple its name.

Originally built by the Hindu traders on the Silk Road, the temple was used by the Hindu, Sikh and Zoroastrian religions. The traders left the area when the British Raj arrived and, coupled with the increasing Islamic faith, the temple was abandoned.

Russian industrialists moved into the area and began removing the oil and gas from the ground, and after almost a century, the reserves dwindled to the point where the Temple's fire was extinguished. When the Temple was restored to become a museum dedicated to the "fire worshippers" of the past, a pipeline was laid to a permanent gas supply and the flame burned again in the Temple.

Phoenix Rising's leith90 was fascinated by this history and happily breathed fire into this question.

Answer: A cemetery

Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, Armenians and Azeris all fought for control during the Russian Civil War bringing about the end of the Russian Empire and the Baku site became a cemetery for the dead of the 'March Events'. When the Bolsheviks came to power and Azerbaijan became part of the Soviet Union and a Soviet Republic, the bodies were removed, and the amusement park was erected. Named after Bolshevik leader Sergei Kirov, it stayed in place until the collapse of the Soviet Union. At that point the park was dismantled and the site was reinstated as a cemetery for war dead in 1990, and renamed Martyr's Lane.

Seen as a shrine to those who have died seeking and ensuring Azerbaijan's independence, it was first used for those who died in the Black January events when the Soviets invaded Baku in 1990. The casualties of the First Nagorno- Karabakh War were also buried here. Located at the entrance the tomb of Fariza and IIham Allahverdiyev, it has become a representation of love and fidelity. Ilham was shot dead during Black January, and Fariza committed suicide when she heard about his death.

Martyr's Lane also houses the Eternal Flame Memorial Complex. Established in 1994, the flame burns atop a golden eight pointed star, designed by Elbay Gasimzade.

Phoenix Rising's Red Crew's smpdit placed this question.

Answer: Soviet Union

Because of its central location in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan was ruled by Persians, Ottomans and Soviets before the country achieved independence.

The Russians took over most of the Caucasus peninsula between 1826-28 from the Persians; this included what is now Azerbaijan.

The Russian Empire collapsed in 1917, causing the Transcaucasian Federation to be created by Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian groups. The federation was short-lived, as the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was proclaimed on 28 May 1918 making it the Islamic world's first democratic republic. The name "Azerbaijan", had been used to identify the adjacent region of north-western Iran, further proof that the Azerbaijanis culturally identified with Persia which then became Iran. A Russian re-conquest occurred in 1920 creating the formation of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.

It was under this regime that the House of Government was built. The building, with obvious Islamic architectural details, was designed and built by the Soviets between 1936-52.

However, obvious Soviet influence led to the construction of Lenin Square in front of Government House. In 1955, a monument to Vladimir Lenin was installed in the square. It was later removed during the Azerbaijani independence movement in the aftermath of bloody Black January in January 1990. An Azerbaijan flag replaced Lenin's statue stood. Lenin square was renamed Azadliq Square (Freedom Square).

This question was tabled by Phoenix Rising's 1nn1.

Answer: LED screens

Azerbaijan's nickname is "The Land of Fire" and Baku's coat of arms features a three-flame motif, and these served as the inspiration for the final design. The tallest tower is 182 m (597 ft) tall and hosts residential apartments, serviced apartments, a hotel and office space. The 2012 completion of the towers took five years at a cost of about US$350 million.

The towers are visible from most points in the city and are covered in approximately 10,000 LED screens. Roughly every two minutes the display on the screens changes, displaying images such as the colours of the Azerbaijan flag, fire, and light shows.

Phoenix Rising's leith90 was fired-up about this question.

Answer: Franz Janz

Austrian architect Franz Janz (it rhymes!) designed the building to resemble a carpet, a fitting place for a museum dedicated to carpets. The museum itself dates back to 1967 and was originally located in the Juma Mosque, before moving to the second floor of the Baku Museum Centre. Then in 2014, it made its way to the purpose-built carpet-shaped building.

As well as carpets dating back to the 17th Century the museum also displays ceramics, Bronze Age jewellery and national garments. You can attend lectures and study courses on carpets as well as applied arts.

The carpets on display are classified in several ways, some of which are politically contentious. The interaction of Azerbaijan with the countries it borders adds regional and cultural interest to the carpets themselves. Southern Azerbaijan, also known as Iranian Azerbaijan, has Persian influences on those carpet samples. In other areas closer to the Soviet Union, of which Azerbaijan was once part, the Russian influence becomes apparent.

Phoenix Rising's Red Crew's smpdit ruggedly gave this topic a good beating.