Went to Azerbaijan for a few days on a summer trip. The capital Baku is similar to other modern cities, with a mix of old, renovated, and new buildings. They’ve done well in creating green spaces around the city as well as some walking only areas such as Nizami Street and other streets near it. They like to do under road tunnels to help people cross major streets, a lot of which have escalators though quite a few have clearly been broken for at least a few months. It’s been interesting trying to find restaurants as some places have thousands of Google Reviews, some have 5, and even some that have a decent amount haven't had a new one in many months or years. Then there are plenty that aren’t on Google at all.
Spent a couple of days in the small 5,000 year old village Khinalig (also sometimes spelled Qinaliq or Xinaliq, but pronounced like Ki-NAL-ig), which is up in the mountains near-ish to the much bigger town Quba (or Guba). Absolutely breathtaking scenery even with afternoon clouds rolling in and enough hiking in the area to keep people busy for a week. Local food was fairly simple meals like grilled chicken or beef cabbage rolls (local version of dolma) with potatoes, fresh vegetables, bread, and tea.
One interesting thing I noticed is that despite it being a 95%+ Muslim country, I didn’t hear any call to prayer in the city or in the village. From talking to locals, it seems to be similar to Türkiye in becoming more culturally Muslim than religiously Muslim, with many people drinking alcohol, not participating in the 5 prayers, and many women not wearing head coverings. There are a lot less mosques than in other Muslim countries, though a lot of that is probably influenced by their time as part of the USSR. I get the feeling that Islam was discouraged much more heavily than Christianity was in nearby Georgia and Armenia, but I haven’t talked to enough older Azeri people to get a full picture of the situation.
Pictures 1-5 are from around Baku, including the Flame Towers, coastline, and one of the walking streets near Nizami
Pictures 6-9 are from the mountains near Khinalig