Azerbaijan With Excursions to Georgia

In 1999, the first edition of this book put Azerbaijan on the travel map. Packed with practical, cultural, and culinary information as well as scores of maps it helped visitors and residents alike to make the most of this beautiful, varied, and much under-estimated country. Caspian Business News praised the book as being in the "usual travel guide format but with an added feel for the country based on in-depth research". This expanded, thoroughly-updated third edition includes ever wilder excursions into the mystical mountains and reveals quaint old Pensar mosques, little-known 6th century church ruins, more bubbling mud volcanoes, and bizarre natural flares in the land where even water catches fire (at Archivan and Bärdä). Visitors can uncover a field full of rusting Soviet-era tanks and armored vehicles near Puta, take idyllic Caucasian hikes from the timeless village of Xinaliq, and explore 4WD routes to remote Allar and secret Sim. There are even more off-beat curiosities pinpointed such as the Perigala "fairy castle", the "hand tree" in Göychay, a cowpie pyramid near Agdash, and a grand disemboweled Lenin statue at Yevlax. Also featured in this fully revised third edition are: