Baku, Azerbaijan

Baku, located on the western coast of the Caspian Sea and bordering Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, and Turkey, is the capital of Azerbaijan as well as its largest city. More than 2,000,000 people, about one fourth of the Azeri population, reside in the Baku metropolitan area. The population is almost all ethnically Azeri and moderate Shiite Muslim, but the state itself is secular.

Azeri is a Turkic language, and many Azeris speak Russian as well. The city is located 29 meters (95 ft) below sea level on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula. Baku, which is mainly known for its location in an oil-rich region and for its petroleum exports, as well as for its rapidly developing economics, has been a trade and political regional ...