1 –  For almost 1000 years, the territory of present-day Republic of Azerbaijan was known as Albania – with absolutely no relation to the country in the Balkans.

2 – Azerbaijani newborns are traditionally bathed in salt water, as doing this is thought to make them grow strong, truthful and bold. Additionally, children’s fingernails and hair are only cut after their first birthday.

3 – Although for most Azerbaijanis the ways of life under Soviet rule are best forgotten, there is still one village which will bring you back to Soviet times. İvanovka is the last village in Azerbaijan with a significant population belonging to the Russian ethnic religious community of Molokans. This is the last place in the world where Kolkhoz, collective farms, from Soviet times are preserved and function to this day. 

4 –  Azerbaijan holds a dubious distinction of having almost double the number of political prisoners than those held in Belarus and Russia combined.

5 –The city of Naflatan is home to crude oil spas, once popular vacation spots of the Soviet Union that are making a return in popularity. Oil from these spas is claimed to be an effective treatment against psoriasis, arthritis and rheumatism. At the height of their Soviet-era popularity, the spas in the city had 75,000 visitors a year.

6 – Bread is considered sacred in Azerbaijan. Because of that, wasted bread isn’t thrown away, as it’s considered too important to be discarded. Instead, it’s usually hung up in bags from a tree. If you drop bread on the floor, it’s custom to kiss it, as an apology, and place it higher up away from the ground and the dirt.

7 – The country is known as the “Land of Fire”. The phrase is thought to be a reference to the natural burning of surface oil deposits which can be observed in the territory. In particular, you can find a sempiternal fire blazing continuously on a hillside on the Absheron Peninsula, not far away from Baku. It is known as the Burning Mountain, Yanar Dağ, and it has entranced travelers and conquerors for millennia. In the 13th century, explorer Marco Polo wrote of the mysterious fires that burned all over on the peninsula

8 – Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, is located 28 metres below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world and also the largest city in the world located below sea level.  

9 – It claims to be the landing place for Noah’s Ark. Over in the town of Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijan exclave, there is a oddly-shaped mountain bulging randomly out of the ground, with a dent at the top. The legend goes that this was the site where Noah first landed after the flood. The city and region even derive their names from the legend, as Nakhchivan means “Noah’s town.”

10 –  In Qırmızı Qəsəbə, a town in Azerbaijan, Jews make up the entire population. It is considered to be the last surviving Jewish shtetl (pre-modern insular Jewish community) in the world.

Did you enjoy learning more about Azerbaijan? Check out more curious facts about Georgia or Kosovo!

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The Power Language Index (PLI) tries to establish which of these languages is the most important and influential. If the number of speakers was the decisive criterion, the Chinese Mandarin, official language of China (and Taiwan), would be the winner, but this is not the case.

The PLI includes different series of factors:

1. Geography – The ability to travel
2. Economy – The ability to participate in an economy
3. Communication – The ability to engage in dialogue
4. Knowledge and media – The ability to consume knowledge and media
5. Diplomacy – The ability to engage in international relations

By combining 20 indicators of these five different criterions, we can identify the 10 most powerful languages and six of them are Europeans (see the table below).

English is by far the most powerful language. It is the dominant language of three G7 nations (USA, UK and Canada), and British legacy has given it a global footprint. It is the world’s lingua franca. Mandarin, which ranks second, is only half as potent. Then we’ve French, Spanish, Arabic and Russian. These first six languages are also the official languages of the United Nations.

The remaining four in the top 10 include the two other BRIC languages (Portuguese and Hindi), and the tongues of two economic heavyweights (Germany and Japan).

English, French, Spanish, German and Portuguese are also five of the 24 official languages of the European Union, which instead of searching a common one has asserted that it is in favour of linguistic diversity.

In the Charter of Fundamental Rights, legally binding since its inclusion in the Lisbon Treaty, the EU declares that it respects linguistic diversity (Article 22) and prohibits discrimination on grounds of language (Article 21). Respect for linguistic diversity is a fundamental value of the European Union, in the same way as respect for the person, openness towards other cultures, and tolerance and acceptance of other people.

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