Baku's Flame Towers at Night: The LED Show Above the Old City and Where to Watch It

Baku calls itself the Land of Fire, after the gas seeps that have burned on the Absheron Peninsula since antiquity. In 2012 the city built its own fire on the skyline: three curved glass towers on the hill above the old town, shaped like flames, finished that year and opened in 2013. The tallest stands 182 metres.

By day they're glass and steel, impressive and a little cold. After dark they come alive. The facades are giant screens covered with more than 10,000 LED fixtures, and the show cycles through rising flames, the blue, red and green of the national flag, and a huge figure waving it.

The photo below catches them mid-cycle on a June night, one tower green, one red and violet, one blue, each striped with horizontal bands of light, seen from a terrace below with a lit-up café in the corner of the frame.

Where to watch from

The seafront boulevard. The long Caspian promenade below the city is where most of Baku spends its summer evenings. From there the towers sit above the old town walls, and you see the whole show with the bay in front.

Icherisheher. From inside the walled Old City, the towers appear between minarets and caravanserai rooftops, glowing over the medieval skyline. The contrast is the point.

Highland Park. The terrace park on the hill right below the towers, reached by the funicular from the seafront, gives the close-up view and a panorama over the bay. Go up before sunset and stay as the lights come on. It's also the site of the Alley of Martyrs, a memorial to those killed in January 1990 and in the Karabakh wars, so behave accordingly.

The old town underneath

Icherisheher, the Walled City, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000. It spent 2003 to 2009 on the danger list after earthquake damage and poorly controlled building, and it's been heavily restored since. Inside the walls are the Palace of the Shirvanshahs, old caravanserais, carpet shops and a maze of lanes that quiet down after dark.

Its landmark is the Maiden Tower, a stout stone cylinder by the old seashore. Its current form dates from the 12th century, but parts may stand on much older foundations, possibly from the 7th or 6th century BC, and nobody is fully sure what it was built for. Climb it for the view over the old roofs to the towers on the hill.

Go hungry. The old town's courtyard restaurants serve dolma, plov, kebabs and the tart sauces of Azerbaijani cooking, and Baku eats late.

For the full city: Baku Travel Guide: Flame Towers, the Walled Old City and Azerbaijan's Land of Fire on Travel Marketing.