Maiden towers

This weekend on a party I had the chance to talk with a quite interesting person. He was not only studying management (always intersting for an economics student like me to compare my own study programme with similar ones in other countries) but he was also an expert in Azerbaijani history and culture. People tend to talk pretty much here if you let them which is great since listen to people is a really good way of actually getting to know and understand the things that surround you.

Among other things, we talked about the real age of the "Maiden Tower", the special brick tower that is seen as the symbol of Baku and said to be constructed in the 12th century although it could be as old as 2 500 years. There are many legends around this tower, about the father that fell in love with his own daughter which made him construct the tower in order to lock her in there or about the maiden that was madly in love with a boy but wasn't allowed to see him why her father locked her in. However, the daughter chose to climb the many stairs up to the top of the high tower and throw herself to her death in the waves that back then were just beneath the tower.

For well traveled readers it will be no surprise that Turkey, the country that Azerbaijan normally compares itself to, also has a Maiden's Tower that dates back to 408 BC. The Maiden's Tower of Istanbul is just like the Maiden Tower of Baku a subject of legends. However, the interesting thing with the Maiden Tower in Baku is that no one knows why it was actually built or given its peculiar name. Besides the many legends, some scientists believe that it was once a Watch Tower and the fact that it was never taken by force gave it the name of a Maiden Tower. In June me an my colleague climbed the many stairs up to the top of the tower and on our way up we tried to figure out the real reason of building it. Between every staircase there is a rounded room and there is plenty of staircases on the way up. Maybe the most intersting thing is that the stairs that take you up to the first room is newly constructed. However, whether there actually were original stairs to climb up the tower the story doesn't tell.

This saturday ended with another interesting conversation. The person I met namely told me he was a Jew and that he visits his mom in Israel every summer. His mother was Jew and his father Muslim since he was born Azerbaijani. Hence, I asked him whether he considered himself to be Jewish or Muslim (since you are normally considered to be Jewish if your mother is a jew). Then he answered me: in Israel I am jew but in Azerbaijan I am muslim since the patriarchy makes my father the head of the family. On my question if he faces any kind of problems from being muslim in Israel he answered that it was never a problem because no one had to know and about the political situation between Israel and Palestine he didn't care. Does you mother care? I asked him. Well, my mother is Jewish so that's another situation, he answered me.

The photo shows the view from the top of Maiden Tower.