Why it looks like this

Baku curves around its bay on the Caspian Sea like a crescent. At the heart is Icherisheher, the walled 'Inner City' of narrow lanes around the Maiden Tower, listed by UNESCO in 2000.

Everything around it is oil money. In the decades around 1900, Baku produced about half of the world's oil, and the boom built a European-style grid of mansions and boulevards right up against the medieval walls.