The Mosque of the Martyrs and 2 flaming towers

            Of all the capitals we have visited on our trip, I preferred Baku and Tbilisi( Georgia). Baku in Azerbaijan is probably my favorite, and here you can see what has happened after the Soviet Union collapsed, and oil dollars went into the domestic economy. 

The city center has been renovated, there is a nice boulevard next to the Caspian sea, a lot of nice parks that give coolness on very hot days, and many architectural delights. 

Two can be seen here, the mosque in front is called the mosque of the martyrs build in 1990, and behind it you can see two of the three flaming towers. These towers dominate the skyline of Baku, and they are gorgeous. The highest building is 182 meters high, and they were finished in 2012.

20 September I came back from my journey over a part of the Silk Road to and through Central Asia. 4 months of traveling through 14 countries (Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran)  before I flew home from Teheran. An impressive  journey in countries that are extremely beautiful, with lovely and welcoming people and diverse cultures and history. 

Intense traveling with more than 20000 kilometers in our mobile home on sometimes roads that hardly could be called that way.  We saw many villages and cities (some wonderful, others very ugly), countries that are transforming from the old Soviet era into something more related to older cultures and the way people live, often funded by oil readily available around the Caspian sea. We saw the amazing mountains south of the Black Sea, the wonderful Caucasus, and the high mountains in the far east close to China with peaks over 7000 meter, and not to forget the (Bulgarian) Alps!

We crossed the great steppe of Kazakhstan. a drive of at least 5000 km, the remnants of lake Aral, once one of the biggest lakes of the world, saw a rocket launch from Baikonur (this little part is Russian owned), we crossed many high mountains passes, and drove the breathtaking canyon that comes from the Pamir, beginning at ca 4500 meter, and going down for ca. 400km to an altitude of 1300 meter, driving for 100's of kilometers along the Afghan border. 

And then the numerous lakes with all sorts of different colors from deep cobalt blue to turquoise, and one rare spectacle in Turkmenistan where a gas crater is burning already for more than 40 years. And finally and certainly not the least to mention an enormous amount of wonderful, hospitable and welcoming people. The woman often dressed in wonderful dresses, and bringing a lot of color in the streets of almost of all countries we visited.

Taken in: Azerbaijan / Baku City / Bukhta-Il’icha (show map)

Taken on: July 9, 2019

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Camera: Sony SLT-A65V, f/5.6, 1/640 sec, 17mm (=25mm), ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Sony SLT-A65V
Lens:	17-50mm F2.8
Aperture:	f/5.6
Exposure Time:	0.002 sec (1/640)
Focal Length:	17mm (35mm equivalent: 25mm)
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Manual
Light Source:	Daylight
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)
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