Highland Park
The park, also known as ‘’Viewing Square’’ or ‘’Sergei Kirov park’’ in the Soviet Era is one of the most charming places in Baku for walking and enjoying the wonderful sea view. People there are invited to have an over-nagging time, drinking tea or having a fresh juice in the Highland Park Café. It's very easily reachable, for it is in the heart of Baku, on the same hill as the Flame Towers, which can be seen here in all of their majestic beauty. There's even a funicular if you don't want to climb the stairs on a particularly hot day. At night, this place starts gaining ground with a big amount of people pouring in; families, friends and the such are all gathered this time in this place, besides the glamorous lighting on the stairs of the Highland Park which adds considerably to the night life of the city at large.
Martyrs Lane
Just over Highland Park you can find the Martyrs' Lane (or Alley of Martyrs, or Şəhidlər Xiyabanı in azerbaijani), an especially important place for Azerbaijan's history. It's a cemetery and memorial, dedicated to those killed by the Soviet army in January 1990, often called “Black January”, and later to those killed in the Nagorno-Karabakh war. This cemetery was called Dağüstü Park and Kirov Park since the 1920s. An estimated number of 15,000 people are buried in the cemetery park. Thousands of people visit the place daily to pay their respect for the fighters for independence and for the innocent victims of the tragic events. Other Turkish and British soldiers are also buried there since 1918, along with journalists from the Nagorno-Karabakh War. In fact, by reading the dates written on the tombs and looking at the etched headstones, one can sadly observe that many died even before reaching their 20th year of age. At the end of it, man could never stop thinking about the fleeting nature of life and death, and how cost-prohibitive is freedom.