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| The funicular can carry up to 28 people per ride. |
As my BFF and I wanted to get to the park before sunset, we decided to burn more calories by climbing the stairs instead of waiting for the funicular.
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| Thinking that we'd take much longer, we ended up reaching the top within less than 15 minutes. |
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| The length of the railway track is 455 m. |
The first set of staircases brought us to Istiglaliyyat Street where the United Nations Office is at. We could also see the upper station of the funicular from there, giving us hope that we'd be able to reach before the sky darkened.
Let's conquer the second and last set of staircases!
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| Housed inside one of the Flame Towers buildings is Fairmont Hotel (5*). |
I couldn't get enough of the breathtaking views from up there.
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| I just couldn't stop smiling while that photo was taken. |
There's an expensive-looking restaurant that goes by the name Manzara at the park, which is open daily from 9.00am to 1.00am.
The Martyr's Lane was first established to bury those who perished during World War I in Azerbaijan. Shahidlar Monument, a memorial dedicated to the fallen Ottoman soldiers, is an unmissable landmark at the park.
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| Two Turkish architects, Hüseyin Bütüner and Hilmi Güner, designed the towering monument. |
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| Inaugurated on 9 October 1998, the memorial features an eternal flame and a gold-framed glass dome. |
During the Soviet era, Highland Park was known as Sergei Kirov Park, named after the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan who took office in 1921. His statue was erected at the park, and to add insult to injury, the cemetery was destroyed to make way for an amusement park.
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| The location has since been reinstated as a burial site after the collapse of the Soviet Union. |
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| Among the first buried there were those killed during the dissolution of the Soviet Union in January 1990. |
We also noticed those who were buried as a result of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, an ethnic and territorial conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia from 1988 to 1994. In the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, Azerbaijan emerged victorious with the widespread use of combat drones against the Armenian forces.
Baku Turkish Martyrs' Memorial is dedicated to the thousand over Turkish troops who were killed while fighting the Armenian and Bolshevik forces during the Battle of Baku in 1918. Nearby is a mosque that was also built by the Turks.
Awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet twice, Hazi Aslanov was an Azerbaijani major-general of the Soviet armoured troops during World War II.
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| The second title was posthumously awarded in 1991 by Mikhail Gorbachev at the constant recommendations by Heydar Aliyev, who eventually became one of the presidents of Azerbaijan. |
We'd intended to take a funicular ride down, but apparently it closed earlier on the Independence Day of the nation.
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| We happened to walk down the staircases devoid of lighting. Gotta be careful! |
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| On hindsight, it'd be better to go down via the grand staircase from the terrace that's well-lit. |
We were so hungry after all the walking, but our heart was full.
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