Maiden Tower
Baku's foremost symbol — and one of the most debated riddles of Azerbaijani archaeology.
A stone giant by the sea
The Maiden Tower (Azerbaijani Qız Qalası) is a massive stone tower about 28 metres tall and roughly 16.5 metres in diameter at the base, with walls up to five metres thick. Inside are eight tiers linked by a spiral staircase within the thickness of the wall, and a well descending to the water table. On the eastern side a distinctive buttress adjoins the tower, its purpose also a matter of dispute.
Figures and facts
The dispute over its age
The tower has no single agreed dating. Some researchers assign the lower part of the masonry to pre-Islamic times — perhaps the first centuries CE or even earlier — while the main body is dated to the 12th century, the period also marked by an inscribed slab mentioning the architect Masud ibn Davud. The differing building techniques along the tower's height are often explained by construction in several stages. Precise dates remain an open scholarly question.
Why it was built
The tower's purpose is unknown, and there are many hypotheses. Among them: a defensive tower and part of the coastal fortifications; a Zoroastrian fire temple (linked to its orientation and buttress); an astronomical observatory; a tower of silence (dakhma) for funerary rites; and a signal or lighthouse tower. None of these versions is considered conclusively proven — which is partly why the tower has become legendary.
Legend and symbol
A folk legend ties the name to a princess who, to escape an unwanted marriage, threw herself from the tower into the sea — but this is folklore, not history, and the name "Maiden" itself is interpreted in various ways (including as "unconquered," a tower never once taken). Today the silhouette of the Maiden Tower is the official symbol of Baku: it appears on Azerbaijani banknotes, stamps and the city's emblems.
The age, building stages and purpose of the Maiden Tower are scholarly disputed; the legend of the princess is a folk tale, not a historical fact.