The Absheron landscape's beauty is rather peculiar. The nature is gray, because there are no rivers here and it rains just occasionally. Plus severe winds. Centuries ago Abd Ar-Rashid al-Bakuvi wrote, that the Absheron wind blows day and night, makes difficult to walk and wintertime it even can blow horses and sheeps off from shore to the sea.
Very suitable to geographical features is the architecture of Absheron. The architectural sizes never are huge and don't produce pressure onto one's imagination. Here you will not meet a violent variety of colors. The lack of solemnity and brightness is compensated by a plenty of other interesting features. Unique feature of the Absheron's architecture is the proportionality of structures, their monumentality.

Earthquakes here happen rather rarely, that has resulted in the greater safety of architecture in comparison with sights of Tebriz, Gandja, Shemaha and Derbent. A certain role has also played the fact that traditionally the main building material here is stone.

Center of the modern Baku is the famous Ichari Shahar (the Inner City) - large medieval fortress with high-power walls which enclose constructed in different centuries palaces, towers, mosques, caravan sarays, baths, habitation constructions. Habitable houses of simple architectural lines here are mixed together with numerous historical complexes, derivating a unique view. Narrow, endlessly turning aside broken streets come in a mysterious labyrinth of an Oriental City from fairy tales of "1001 Nights". Ichari Shahar is a place of quivering worship of all town's people and favorite object for tourists; it is a paradise for movie shooting groups.

Maiden Tower is a symbol of both Baku and Azerbaijan

In opinion of a number of specialists, Baku initially was located on hills outside of Ichari Shahar. Then because of several landslides the population more liked to move downwards. In VII-IX centuries the city finally was settled in lowland and Baku was outlined by fortress walls - unique historical monument kept safe up to our days.
One of the main Baku sights is the tower Gyz Galasyh ("Maiden Tower"). It can be found below, where the fortress wall ends in waters of the Caspian Sea. In opinion of a number of researchers, it is an ancient defensive tower. But this construction strongly differs from all medieval defensive facilities of Absheron. Its architectural features are much more similar to some specific archaic constructions and for this reason many other specialists consider it to be a temple of seven gods of the pre-Zoroastrian period. Seid Yahya Bakuvi in his chronicles confirms that after acceptance of Islam in Azerbaijan, the Maiden Tower continued to be used as an observatory for watching over celestial heavenly objects.

The upper point of the fortress is headed by the Shirvanshahs' Palace. In XV century the governors of Shirvan have transferred here the capital of the state from Shemaha to Baku, have rebuilt this palace and made it their residence. The palace composition integrates the palace itself, Divan Khana (the place of governmental assembly - Divan), bath, mosque, and turbe (the tomb of the Shah's family members; in the first years of Soviets it was plundered by the special order from Moscow). On territory of the Divan-Khana's yard there is a waterless well of depth of five meters, named Sud Guyusu (A Milk Well); the miracle power of returning the milk to suckling mothers is attributed to this object.

They could send fire signals from one tower to another

The legends keep memory of cities, flooded in Caspian sea close to Baku. When in XIV century part of Baku had been flooded by the sea, in southwest of the Baku bay Caspian Sea had swallowed an object known as "Bayil Stones". It is supposed to be the Sabayil fortress. Many years later, after the falling of a sea level down, the walls of this ancient construction had appeared from under the sea. It was a stepwise, tower like, rectangular temple. In opinion of some experts, it had been constructed by the priests of ancient Mesopotamia. Towers of Absheron must be mentioned specially. Even A. Bakuvi had noted that a strengthened citadel was placed in each village of the Baku surroundings. Ruins of such towers still can be seen in Bilgah, Shagan, Gala and other settlements. Well preserved towers can be met in Ramani, Nardaran and Mardakan (two towers).

The round-plan one of two towers in Mardakan is dated to XII century. The other one, rectangular tower of huge size with round, closed half-towers on its corners, in opinion of the experts, can be dated as XIV century. Composition of the tower in Ramani very special. This tower differs from all other Absheron towers. Its outlines repeat the relief contours of the hill, on which it is constructed, and in the plan makes neither rectangle, nor circle.

Some Pirs also can be considered to be an architectural monument. A sacred place in Azerbaijani language is named a Pir. In each village of Absheron there was a Pir, and sometimes they were several. More often it was the grave of the person, known by his/her sanctity. Nardaran Piri, Bibi-Heibat and Ali Ayaghi always were the most attended sacred places on Absheron.
Nardaran-piri still stays an important cult complex. The Mosque dated XIV century is located here. There are underground courses under the mosque. A dry well in one of the mosque's rooms is the entrance to this underground labyrinth. Nobody knows what for, but one of the courses brings you to a mentioned above defensive tower of Nardaran. On Absheron there were many temples of Fire as well. From their variety we shall notice the well-preserved temple Ateshgah ("the Fire Place") in Surakhani.

It had been founded in the end of XVIII century by the fire-worshippers - people from Northern India who had established in Baku their settlement. The majority of the reserchers suppose that Ateshgah is a Zoroastrian temple. It looks like a usual Caravan-Sarai by its shape (a lodger and trade yard). In the center of a temple there is an altar, where the fire is coming out of the soil, and there are cells along the walls - nooks, where lodgers and servants of the temple lived.