Kamal Ali

Baku was loved by tourists in the Soviet era, when we only had the Maiden Tower and the polluted Caspian and, perhaps, nothing else. Now, after the construction of three twin Flame Towers in Baku, highlighting the city's buildings and putting new tiles on those of the Khrushchev era, the capital became more beautiful. Tourists come to Baku again. The above-mentioned high-rise hotels, anyway, have no free rooms, despite the 300-manat price of daily living.

 Especially, it is a shame when our picky look stumbles upon Baku errors, certainly shocking any tourist. Last Saturday I walked around my hometown and photographed them - not all of our mistakes, because there are a lot of them, just some.

Tourists from countries of the former Soviet space, which grew by Soviet films, wish to see the famous Baku site of the film "The Diamond Arm", where the main character was brilliantly played by Nikulin. Tourists walk around the historic architectural complex Icherisheher (Inner City) and ask passersby, and not finding a special pointer for tourists, become very surprised. I confess that I myself could hardly find the entrance to that famous cellar. But it would be nice if Baku City established a special pointer there. Two years ago there was even the idea of ​​setting a bronze monument to Nikulin in the place. Unfortunately, the valuable idea was not realized.

Let's go on through the old city. At the fortress walls close to the metro station Icherisheher, is situated a beautiful and probably unique monument to our great poet Aliaga Vahid. Such an original monument does not exist anywhere else in the world. However, if you read the text on the marble slab, reinforced at the foot of the monument, you will be most probably surprised. According to the text, by the way, in the Azerbaijani and English languages​​, the poet was born in 1943, and his first work was published in 1916. Is it a paradox or an error? I'd like to hear an explanation.

Coming out of the city gates, let's go down along the wall to Azneft Square. Right from the tourists is a beautiful park with a fountain and white marble pillars, in the Greek monumental style. A reasonable question arises: what is the connection between the ancient Greek architecture and the oriental-style buildings of Baku? How could these two different and opposite architectural directions be combined?

In order to ensure their incompatibility, turn the head to the left and get horrified to discover (of course, horrified are the European tourists not accustomed to this, and not the Baku people accustomed to all) a giant modern clock hammered with metal wedges into the wall of the XVI century. The dial and the arrows are double a human height. It is striking, so to speak, to see this purely Azerbaijani "care" about our history. I can understand the desire of a businessman to bring imported equipment to Baku and to sell it to the city authorities. But a modern clock should be mounted on a modern wall. Do not they feel sorry about the historical monument? This is the same blasphemy as if modern details were hammered into the Kremlin Wall in Moscow, or installed on the surface of the Egyptian pyramids.

From the fountain let's walk along the street Sheikh Shamil. Tourists will have to jump over the destroyed budge tiles on the sidewalk, walk past the street garbage and wonder at the sight of signs above the shops. Baku people are accustomed to such a language and do not react , but tourists immediately pull out cameras to capture the Azerbaijani-Russian language mixture. There is such a unique language for signs of our stores. For example, the one that I photographed over a shop on the street Sheikh Shamil was Malyshok.

Next to this shop I photographed a marvelous showcase with no less marvelous sculptural composition. In the composition there is a lot of eroticism and naturalism, but the showcase does not expose a fashionable product, but simply shows folded pieces of plastic mannequins. Typically, in countries where tourists are respected, showcases not ready for demonstration are covered with curtains and a shield "the showcase is temporarily covered for repairs." But we repair the entire erotic show before the guests, and do not hesitate.

You could talk for long about the "horror movies" faced by tourists in Baku. Plastic bags flying and getting stuck in trees, food that is incredibly expensive and comparable with the Parisian prices, very expensive rooms in hotels, and horribly miserable bars and eateries, for some reason called "clubs."

This holiday season we somehow survived. Now wse read stories about "horror movies" with which foreigners face in our country in the international press. I'd like this not to happen in the next season.

ANN.Az