Where in the World is Azerbaijan

Blessed with a wide range of physical topographies—from semiarid lowlands to the Greater and Lesser Caucasus and Talysh Mountains—the Republic of Azerbaijan includes 33,774 square miles of complicated boundaries and a long history of foreign occupation. Bordered by Georgia and Russia to the north, Armenia and Turkey to the west, Iran to the south and the Caspian Sea to the east, Azerbaijan is made up of the autonomous region of Nagorno Karabakh—currently occupied by Armenian forces—the Nakhchivan Republic, which is separated from Azerbaijan proper by parts of Armenia, and several clusters of small islands in the Caspian Sea, while the nation’s capital city of Baku is located on the Absheron Peninsula along the Bay of Baku.

Land of Lakes

Boasting more than 250 lakes and several large reservoirs, Azerbaijan’s many rivers flow from Georgia, Turkey, Armenia and the Azerbaijan mountain ranges, while the vast majority join together to form the Kura-Aras river system, which empties into the Caspian Sea about 80 miles south of Baku. With a climate that varies as widely as the nation’s many topographies—from snow-covered mountains as high as 14,000 feet, to semiarid lowlands such as Baku, which sees temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer months. The country’s vegetation is equally varied, from sparse, low-growing plants in the semiarid lowlands to mainly deciduous forests in the mountains, upper Kura River Basin and northernmost coast, to meadows and alpine tundras on the highest mountain peaks.

Ethnic Majority

While some 95% of the nation is made up of ethnic Azerbaijanis, the nation’s melting pot background also includes Lezgin, Russians, Ukrainians, Talysh, Turks and Avars, making the food scene in Azerbaijan’s larger cities a richly diverse experience. With a population slightly more than ten million Azerbaijanis, the nation is blessed with a wide range of natural resources, including oil and gas, iron ore, nonferrous metals and alumina, although 92% of Azerbaijan’s export revenue comes from oil and gas, which makes up 47.8% of the country’s gross domestic product of slightly less than $79 billion dollars, making the nation of Azerbaijan, a diverse and thriving country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia.