Caucasus 2023 — Bernd's Perspective

Journey to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, May 2023.

Administrative building in Baku

The Flame Towers park

...with cemetery

...soviet era monument

...mosque and towers in shape of flames

Chat with cat

Flame Towers

View over Baku

E-scooters have made it to Baku

Ten centuries worth of buildings in one shot

Catapult

Backyard in Baku old town

Alley in the old town

Square in the old town

Maiden Tower

You can see the Flame Towers from anywhere in central Baku

Modern buildings on the way to the airport

Cat having a nap

Cat sitting and not caring in front of a metro station

Outside of Baku there are stone cavings

...not much water

...mud volcanoes

Mod volcano

Mud volcanoes

Heyday Aliyev Centre

...designed be British-Iranian architect Zaha Hadid

...all curvy

...and named after the first secretary of soviet Azerbaijan

...who then went on to become president of Azerbaijan Republic

Haydar Aliyev Centre

You can never have too many rugs

Carpet museum

Mosque

Old mosque that got destroyed during an earth quake

Some old king's mausoleum

Highest point in the country at zero visibility

Back down it's clearing up

Church (a rare sight in Azerbaijan)

A mean looking Jesus

Caravanserai

Now a budget hotel

Sweets

A palace

Persian influenced

And a church

Welcome to Georgia with this suicidal sculpture

The first of many monasteries

Confluence of the blue river and the brown river, with the ancient capital

Oldest church in Georgia

Big Jesus

The 'Baby Jesus' is usually not such a baby in Georgian iconography

Inside the church

The church has it's own fortress

Not very nice Georgian sweets

Georgian cups you can't put down

View over Tbilisi

Mother of Georgia (rear view)

Stalin went to the priest seminary before joining the Bolsheviks and becoming a monster

A complicated story about hosting an event in Georgia. In his hand the cup you can't put down until you've emptied it

Church an a hill

River with healing properties and hammams

A man on a horse

Cheesy dough, filled with cheese and cheese on top of it

In this coffin the remains of three people were found

Summer palace

Throne and picture of two lions

"Baby" Jesus

Another monastery

Summer residence of a king, later seized by the Romanovs

Lunch

Fortress

Reservoir

Another monastery

Bell tower

...with a view

The original Pringles are almost twice the price as the local ones!

Monument the celebrate the Russian-Georgian friendship

Very high mountains

Friendship monument

The highest mountain in Georgia

The last monastery

...in a stunning setting

Russia ahead of this point, I didn't go there

Armenia! With this very dynamic pedestrian crossing sign

Armenian cross stone, carved out of a single block. Imagine making a mistake...

Inside a church

Outside a church

A farm behind the church

The man who build a lot of churches in Armenia, like an Armenian Christopher Wren

Church paraphernalia

Church

Engravings

Monastery

Soviet monument

Wood worker

The most important monastery in front of a cloudy mount Ararat

Cemetery

Monastery in stunning location

Beautiful setting

Group of dressed up youths waiting to go to the manuscript museum in Yerevan

He invented all 38 letters of the Armenian alphabet

In the manuscript museum

The Armenian genocide museum

The Armenian genocide monument

...with a wreath

...and an eternal flame

The first church in the world!

...unfortunately being renovated

Armenia is paradise!

A bit of petrified wood of Noah's ark, recovered from mount Ararat and displayed in what is the Vatican of Armenia

The Holy Lance!

This guy was hard done by

The only circular church in Armenia

...only ruins are left

The two peaks of mount Ararat

Another church in another monastery

Impromptu singing in a cave

The singing cave

A greek style temple that is actually a church

Temple

Republic Square in Yerevan

...the fountains come to life in the evening

The cascades in Yerevan, part modern art exhibition part hang-out for locals and tourists alike

...art

...and a yellow man sitting on a platform