Azerbaijan wears its Caucasus location and cocktail of influences thrillingly.

Nowhere more so than in the capital, Baku, whose modern skyscrapers make eyes at the future even as its heart clings to the medieval era – the 12th-century Maiden Tower rising like a Rapunzel dream. Elsewhere, the little city of Ganja recalls the ways and wordplay of Persia. Named after the 12th-century poet Nizami Ganjavi, it’s shaped by bathhouses and boulevards, mugham folk music drifting on the air. And the geography feels suitably continentally conclusive, sat as Azerbaijan is at the eastern edge of Europe. Three hundred spectacular mud volcanoes pit the interior while the Caspian Sea supplies a 500-mile shoreline laced with fine beaches.