60 Fun Facts About Azerbaijan

Which of these countries does NOT share a land border with Azerbaijan?

Azerbaijan is technically landlocked: the Caspian is the world's largest lake despite its name.

What is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan?

It is also the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the whole Caucasus region.

Baku holds what unusual distinction among the world's national capitals?

It is also the largest city in the world lying below sea level, sitting on the shore of the Caspian.

Baku's nickname, the "City of Winds", refers to which pair of named winds that blow there in all seasons?

The khazri is the cold northern wind and the gilavar the warm southern one.

Nearly half of all the mud volcanoes on Earth are concentrated in which country?

They were even nominated for the New 7 Wonders of Nature; some eruptions have thrown flames hundreds of metres high.

Yanar Dag, a hillside near Baku that has burned continuously for decades, is fed by what?

Local stories say a shepherd accidentally lit it in the 1950s; others claim it has burned for 4,000 years.

Azerbaijan's long-standing nickname is the Land of what?

The name Azerbaijan itself is often traced to Old Iranian words meaning "protected by the holy fire".

The name Azerbaijan derives from Atropates, a satrap under which ancient empire?

Alexander the Great reinstated Atropates as satrap of Media, and the region became known as Atropatene.

Which two treaties, in 1813 and 1828, forced Qajar Iran to cede its Caucasian territories to Russia?

Together they set the Aras River as the border, splitting the Azerbaijanis between Russia and Iran to this day.

Which river became the border between Russia and Iran after the 1828 treaty?

More Azerbaijanis live south of that line in Iran than in the Republic of Azerbaijan itself.

The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic of 1918 was the first Muslim-majority state to do what?

The republic fell to the Red Army in April 1920.

How long did the independent Azerbaijan Democratic Republic last before the Bolshevik invasion of 1920?

As many as 20,000 Azerbaijani soldiers died resisting what was effectively a Russian reconquest.

During World War II, roughly what share of the Soviet Union's oil on the Eastern Front came from Baku?

That is why Germany's Operation Edelweiss targeted the city in 1942.

Which Swedish industrial family arrived as investors in Baku's oil fields in 1873?

The Rothschilds followed in 1882; the Nobel brothers' oil money later helped fund the Nobel Prizes.

Azerbaijan celebrates its Day of Restoration of Independence on which date, marking the 1991 declaration?

A nationwide referendum affirmed it in December, days before the USSR formally dissolved.

Which region, with an ethnic Armenian majority, was at the centre of two wars between Azerbaijan and Armenia?

A 2023 Azerbaijani offensive ended the breakaway Republic of Artsakh, which was formally dissolved on 1 January 2024.

Azerbaijan's Heydar Aliyev earlier spent 28 years working for which Soviet organisation?

He then ran Soviet Azerbaijan as First Secretary from 1969 to 1982 before returning to power after independence.

Who succeeded Heydar Aliyev as president of Azerbaijan in 2003?

Ilham's wife Mehriban Aliyeva was later appointed the country's first vice-president.

Nakhchivan, an autonomous republic of Azerbaijan, is unusual because it is what?

It also gives Azerbaijan its shortest international border, just 15 km long.

Which biblical figure is linked by folk etymology to the name Nakhchivan, "place of the first descent"?

The tradition holds he settled there after the Ark landed on nearby Mount Ararat.

Azerbaijan shares its shortest land border, just 15 km, with which country?

Its longest border, over 1,000 km, is with Armenia.

Mount Bazardüzü, Azerbaijan's highest peak at 4,466 m, sits on the border with which country?

It is also the highest point of Dagestan, and Russia's southernmost point lies a few kilometres away.

Which is the longest river in Azerbaijan, at 1,515 km, entering the country from Georgia?

It receives the Aras as a tributary before reaching the sea; every big reservoir in the country is built on it.

Which animal, an endangered mountain-steppe breed, is the national animal of Azerbaijan?

Queen Elizabeth II was given one named Shohrat by President Aliyev in 2022.

On Azerbaijan's flag, red stands for progress and green for Islam. What does the blue stand for?

Red stands for progress and green for Islam; the star at the centre has eight points.

How many points does the star on Azerbaijan's national flag have?

The first 1918 flag copied the Ottoman design, which had also used an eight-pointed star until 1844.

Azerbaijani, the official language, belongs to which sub-branch of the Turkic languages?

It is close enough to Turkish, Turkmen and Gagauz to be mutually intelligible to varying degrees.

Since independence in 1991, Azerbaijani in the Republic has been written in which script?

The alphabet had already changed twice in the Soviet era: Perso-Arabic to Latin in the 1920s, then to Cyrillic in the 1930s.

Which is the flagship dish of Azerbaijani cuisine, of which more than 200 varieties exist?

Custom says a household prepares one for any guest who visits.

Azerbaijanis traditionally drink black tea from an armudu, a glass of what shape?

The name comes from armud, the word for pear; the narrow waist keeps the top cool while the base stays hot.

Narsharab, the tart sauce served with grilled sturgeon in Azerbaijan, is made from which fruit?

Saffron, another key condiment, is grown domestically on the Absheron Peninsula.

Which improvisational Azerbaijani musical tradition became a UNESCO masterpiece in 2003?

It is usually a suite mixing poetry and instrumental interludes, built on seven main modes.

Ell and Nikki won the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest for Azerbaijan with which song?

Azerbaijan had only debuted in 2008; the win brought the 2012 contest to Baku.

Which purpose-built venue on Baku's coastline hosted the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest?

Sweden's Loreen won that year with "Euphoria"; the 23,000-seat hall was finished shortly before the show.

Nizami Ganjavi, the 12th-century poet born in Ganja, wrote his famous Khamsa in which language?

The Khamsa ("Quintet") includes "Khosrow and Shirin" and "Layla and Majnun"; he is considered the greatest romantic epic poet of that literature.

Which 12th-century monument in Baku's Old City appears on the 10-manat banknote and the 5-qepik coin?

Together with the Shirvanshahs' Palace and the walled city it became Azerbaijan's first UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000.

Baku's Old City, with its palace and tower, was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in which year?

Three years later UNESCO put it on the danger list after earthquake damage and "dubious" restoration; it came off in 2009.

Why did Baku's Ateshgah 'Fire Temple' lose its natural eternal flame in 1969?

Today the flames are fed by a gas pipe; the site became a museum in 1975 and there is a long debate over whether it was Hindu or Zoroastrian.

Gobustan, south of Baku, is a UNESCO site famous for what prehistoric feature?

Thor Heyerdahl visited repeatedly, convinced the boat images linked the region to Scandinavia.

Which Baku-born chess world champion fled the city during the January 1990 pogroms?

He was born Garik Weinstein and trained at Botvinnik's school under Baku coach Vladimir Makogonov.

Baku-born Lev Landau won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physics for his theory of what?

A car crash earlier that year left him unable to collect the prize in person.

Lotfi Zadeh, born in Baku in 1921, is best known for inventing which branch of mathematics?

His 1965 paper on fuzzy sets underpins everything from rice cookers to camera autofocus.

Which sport has traditionally been regarded as Azerbaijan's national sport?

The country has won fourteen Olympic medals in it, including four golds.

Which home city did Azerbaijan's Champions League pioneers Qarabag FK leave in 1993?

Aghdam was seized by Armenian forces in July 1993 and the club moved to Baku; Azerbaijan retook the town in 2020 and has been rebuilding its stadium.

Who won the first race officially titled the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, in 2017?

The Baku street circuit had first hosted F1 a year earlier as the European Grand Prix.

Which Baku-born cellist and conductor did more than anyone to enlarge the cello repertoire?

His father, also a cellist, had studied with Casals before the family moved to Baku from Orenburg.

In which year did the historic centre of Sheki, with its khan's summer palace, join the UNESCO World Heritage List?

Sheki was a major silk centre in the 1800s, with more than 200 European companies opening offices there.

Which subtropical city in Azerbaijan's far south is home to the country's first tea plant, built in 1937?

It also gets the most rain in the country, up to 1,800 mm a year, versus as little as 200 mm on the Absheron Peninsula.

Ganja, Azerbaijan's second city, spent most of the Soviet period under which name?

The Russians had earlier renamed it Yelizavetpol after the wife of Tsar Alexander I.

The Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline carries Caspian crude to a port on which sea?

At 1,768 km it is the second-longest oil pipeline in the former USSR after Russia's Druzhba line; first oil arrived in May 2006.

Baku's metro, opened in 1967, was which number rapid-transit system in the Soviet Union?

It opened for the 50th anniversary of the 1917 revolution and is known for deep, lavishly decorated stations.

Which annual spring holiday in Azerbaijan derives from the Zoroastrian New Year?

Families jump over bonfires and grow wheat sprouts (semeni) in the weeks before.

Baku hosted the inaugural edition of which multi-sport event in 2015?

Baku followed up with the Islamic Solidarity Games in 2017 and matches at UEFA Euro 2020.

Which ancient kingdom ruled the territory of modern Azerbaijan before the Persian empires?

Its King Urnayr adopted Christianity as the state religion in the 4th century, and the kingdom survived as a Sasanian vassal until the 9th.

Which Iranian dynasty subdued the Shirvanshahs in 1501 and converted the population to Shia Islam?

Shah Tahmasp I finally deposed the Shirvanshahs altogether in 1538 and made the area the province of Shirvan.

Which colonel led the 1993 insurrection that toppled elected president Abulfaz Elchibey?

The coup brought former Soviet-era leader Heydar Aliyev back to power; his son Ilham succeeded him as president in 2003.

On what date in 2024 was the breakaway Republic of Artsakh formally dissolved?

Azerbaijan's September 2023 offensive prompted the exodus of nearly all ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh.

The 1921 treaty between the Soviet republics and Turkey on Caucasus borders is named after which city?

Under the deal Armenia was awarded Zangezur, cutting Nakhchivan off from the rest of Azerbaijan, and Turkey got Gyumri back.

Along with the Greater and Lesser Caucasus, which range is Azerbaijan's third mountain system?

Together the three ranges cover about 40 percent of the country, in the far south near the Iranian border.

How many economic regions is Azerbaijan divided into?

Below them sit 66 rayons and 11 cities under direct republican authority.