Maiden's Tower, Baku Coast, Turkey

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Maiden's Tower

 

A round stronghold tower situated along the Baku coast, the Maiden’s Tower might have, at one time, made up part of the walls of the city walls that protested the old town.

Since the Paleolithic period, the site of the Maiden’s Tower has always been occupied and there is evidence to show different cultures in history have at one time or another contributed to the structure of the tower. These cultures are of Sasanian, Zoroastrian, Arabic, Shirvani, Persian, Russian, and Ottoman origin, as seen in different methods in structure employed in its building.

The tower’s foundation is dated between the 6th and the 7th centuries. It is surmised that the shaft was completed in the 12th century. A careful survey completed by the engineer of the Russian army at the start of the 19th century discovered that the Tower’s original structure had stayed unchanged, except for the remodeled and altered vaults and roofs. In the start of the 20th century, the vaults once again remodeled.

In the year 2000, the UNESCO declared the Maiden’s Tower a World Heritage site, together with Baku’s Walled City and the Palace of the Shirvan Shahs, and in 2003 was amended to the World Heritage in Danger list.