Azerbaijan trivia: 48 questions and answers

Baku. Baku, on the Caspian shore, is the capital and by far the largest city. Ganja is a historic city in the west, and Nakhchivan is the capital of the exclave.

The manat. The manat, symbol ₼, is divided into 100 qəpik. The lari is Georgia's currency, the dram Armenia's and the rial Iran's.

Turkic. Azerbaijani is a Turkic language, closely related to Turkish and Turkmen.

Nakhchivan. The Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic is an exclave in the west, bordered by Armenia, Iran and Türkiye.

True. True. The Caspian Sea, the world's largest inland body of water, forms Azerbaijan's eastern edge, and Baku lies on its shore.

More than half. More than half. By 1901 Baku produced more than half of the world's oil, thanks to companies such as the Nobel brothers' Branobel.

Persian. Persian, the literary language of the region at the time. His 'Five Treasures', including Layla and Majnun, are loved from Iran to Azerbaijan.

The Aras. The Aras. It still separates the Republic of Azerbaijan from Iran, where millions of Azerbaijani speakers live.

COP29, the UN climate change conference. COP29, the UN climate change conference, was held in Baku in November 2024 and ended with an agreement on climate finance.

True. True. On 19 to 20 January 1990 Soviet troops entered Baku to crush the independence movement; official Azerbaijani figures count 147 civilians killed. 20 January is a day of mourning.

False. False. The pipeline was built to avoid Russia: it runs from Baku through Georgia to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean.

The topping of meat, chestnuts and dried fruit served beside the rice. The gara is the topping of meat, chestnuts and dried fruit served beside the rice, usually on a separate platter, so each person can combine them.

A pear-shaped tea glass. An armudu is a pear-shaped tea glass; the word comes from armud, pear. Strong black tea is served in it all day long.

Shaki. Shaki. Shaki halva is made by professional halva makers and takes a whole day to prepare.

Lankaran and the Talysh south. Lankaran and the Talysh south. Levengi belongs to the Talysh people, and it is made above all for Novruz.

True. True. In 2017 UNESCO inscribed 'Dolma making and sharing tradition, a marker of cultural identity' for Azerbaijan.

False. False. Qutab are cooked quickly on a dry, dome-shaped griddle called a saj and then brushed with butter.

True. True. Saffron from Absheron colours and flavours plov, piti and many other Azerbaijani dishes.

Shekerbura. Shekerbura. Together with pakhlava and shorgoghal it is one of the traditional Novruz pastries. Dushbara are dumplings in broth, dovga is a yoghurt soup and lyulya is a minced-meat kebab.

Sumgait. Sumgait, on the Absheron Peninsula about 30 km from Baku, has about 430,000 people.

Mingachevir. Mingachevir, built from 1948 around a great dam on the Kura, has a hydroelectric station and a reservoir about 70 km long.

True. True. Shamakhi was the main seat of the Shirvanshahs for centuries, before Baku took over that role in the 15th century.

The Maiden Tower. The Maiden Tower, Qız qalası, is about 29 metres high and usually dated to the 12th century. Together with the Palace of the Shirvanshahs it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Natural gas seeping out of the rock. Natural gas seeping out of the rock, a layer of sandstone, feeds flames up to 3 metres high, one reason Azerbaijan is called the Land of Fire.

Thousands of prehistoric rock carvings. Thousands of prehistoric rock carvings. Gobustan has more than 6,000 carvings of hunters, dancers, animals and boats, and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2007.

It is spoken nowhere else in the world. It is spoken nowhere else in the world: the Khinalug language belongs only to this village. About 2,000 people live in the village, which became part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2023.

True. True. In the earthquake of 1139 part of Mount Kapaz collapsed and blocked a river, and the water formed the lake.

False. False. The natural flame died out in 1969 after many years of oil and gas extraction nearby, and today it burns on piped gas.

True. True. It was inscribed in 2019. The palace is famous for its wall paintings and its shebeke windows of coloured glass in wooden lattices.

Baku. Baku, on the shore of the Caspian Sea, whose surface is itself below sea level.

Mugham. Mugham, played on the balaban, a wooden wind instrument. Fado is from Portugal, tango from Argentina and Uruguay, and flamenco from Spain.

Mud volcanoes. Mud volcanoes. By common estimates nearly half of all the mud volcanoes on Earth are in Azerbaijan, many of them around Gobustan.

2011. 2011, with 'Running Scared' by Ell and Nikki. Azerbaijan first took part in 2008 and hosted the contest in Baku in 2012.

False. False. Azerbaijan returned to a Latin alphabet after 1991, and since 2001 it has been the only official one. Cyrillic was used in Soviet times, from 1939.

True. True. Qırmızı Qəsəbə is widely described as the only town with a mostly Jewish population outside Israel and the United States.

True. True. It is bordered by Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran, and in Azerbaijani it is called Xəzər dənizi.

Bread. Bread. Cheese is pendir, water is su and meat is ət.

cat. Cat. The letter ə, as in ət (meat) and gözəl (beautiful), sounds like the a in 'cat'.

True. True. Bazar is the market, and it is also the name of Sunday, the traditional market day.

çay. Çay, pronounced like 'chai'. Su is water, pul is money and ət is meat.

Nuş olsun. Nuş olsun, may it be good for you. Görüşənədək means 'see you', bağışlayın 'excuse me' and sabahınız xeyir 'good morning'.

Hesab, zəhmət olmasa. Hesab, zəhmət olmasa: the bill, please. Tualet haradadır? asks for the toilet, mənim adım means 'my name is' and başa düşmədim means 'I didn't understand'.

False. False. Necəsiniz? is the polite 'How are you?'. Where is the toilet? is 'Tualet haradadır?'.

By air. By air. Azerbaijan closed its land borders to most travellers in 2020 and has extended the closure many times since.

15. 15 days. Hotels often register guests for them; if you are not registered you may be fined when you leave.

103. 103 is the ambulance. 102 is the police and 101 the fire service.

True. True. Reputable sellers can arrange the certificate, or it can be obtained through the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum in Baku.

False. False. Visitors without residence rights may not bring drones: they are held by customs at the border and returned when you leave. Photographing military sites is also forbidden.