Life by the sea
A peninsula of rest
Today Absheron is above all the suburbs of Baku and a leisure zone. People come here for dachas, beaches, seaside restaurants and the national park. In summer the peninsula comes alive: every Baku family has its favourite village on the shore.
Here oil derricks and beach clubs, old villages and new resorts, mosques and water parks live side by side. This contrast is the very character of modern Absheron.
At the same time the peninsula remains a working one: oil and gas extraction, ports and plants still shape its daily life, while the strong winds power wind farms.
Suburbs of Baku
The peninsula is densely built up with satellite villages of the capital; many Baku people live right here and commute to the city every day.
Dacha villages
Buzovna, Mardakan, Shuvelan, Bilgah — traditional dacha places with gardens, figs and the sea close by.
Beaches and resorts
Sandy beaches, seaside clubs and water parks stretch along the coast — Absheron’s main summer stage.
National park
The Absheron National Park on Cape Shah preserves wild nature: Caspian seals, gazelles and birds.
Gardens
Figs, grapes, olives and saffron are still grown in Absheron’s gardens — the living taste of the peninsula.
Sea and wind
Absheron’s strong winds are now used for wind energy too — an ancient element serving the future.
Summer by the CaspianA second home
Where people go for summer
For generations of Baku people, summer means Absheron: a dacha in a village, figs from one’s own tree, the evening breeze and a swim in the Caspian. It is part of the Baku identity.
People return here every summer — from the city and from other countries, to their native shores, to the smell of the sea and warm stone.
Itinerary
What to see in a day
Fire
Yanar Dag and the Ateshgah temple — the peninsula’s two main “fiery” places, best seen at dusk.
Stone
The castles of Mardakan and Ramana and the Qala ethnographic reserve — medieval Absheron in a single route.
Water
The pink Masazir lake, the beaches of Buzovna and Bilgah, the national park at Cape Shah — for those who love the sea and nature.