Flame Tower Baku, Azerbaijan

Baku-or Baki, as it is oft familiar, is the top of Azerbaijan and the largest port and opening in the Caucasus realm. It sprawls over the Absheron peninsula in a elemental gallery bounded by mountains to the writer and the Caspian Sea to the septentrion, southmost and eastern. A urbane metropolis run according to secular principles, it is an importunate end where locals, expats and visitors of incompatible ethnicities mingle with repose