Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

One of the most influential travel bloggers, Paul Steele, who has several times visited the Land of Fires - Azerbaijan - believes that the country's real treasures should be known all over the world.

For the first time Steele visited Azerbaijan in 2012, and since then he traveled such beautiful places, as Gobustan, which is UNESCO's World Heritage site, and Sheki Khan's Palace, astonishes with construction, combination of colors and shabaka - stained-glass windows made by national Azerbaijani masters - without glues or nails.

A rich landscape of the Abseron Peninsula, and innumerable mud volcanoes located here have deeply impressed the travel blogger from the North England.

"Azerbaijan is actually home to 70 percent of the mud volcanoes in the world. On the drive up there the landscape becomes notably more of a mud bath from the ages of mud eruptions," he writes in his posts.

Being in Gabala, Steele also visited Beltmann Piano factory and Udi church of Nij - a unique example of the religious tolerance within the country.

"Whilst travelling through Gabala in the north of Azerbaijan I took the time to experience a small part but significant part of the religious tolerance within the country. Religion is 100 per cent removed from the state here and freedom of religion is something you feel brings pride and togetherness. For a country that is 95% Muslim the signs and support for all religions is evident. If a new church is built for whatever denomination the heads of all other religions are invited," Steel writes.

Visiting Baku, Steele paid particular attention to Opera and Ballet Theatre and Old City of Baku - another UNESCO's World Heritage site, writing two posts only about these beautiful samples of Azerbaijan's architecture. Moreover, he wrote another post about such places in Baku, as the monument to women's liberation, Azerbaijan's National Academy of Science Presidium and amazing Flame Towers.

"You have such amazing variety of things to see," he told Trend Agency, describing his 6-day stay in Azerbaijan.

This become Steele's third visit to Azerbaijan, and one of the reasons for it was the participation in opening of the Pik Palace Hotel in Shahdag tourism resort complex, which was opened on December 20.

Calling Azerbaijan "a very open country", Steele compared the country with an open theater.

"Azerbaijan is one of the most open and friendly countries for the people. Azerbaijan has the treasures that the world needs to know about," he said, describing his impressions.

Steele, a hiker from northern England, covers the most amazing places all over the world, exploring various countries, which are not constantly in the spotlight, and presents them through the social media, and on his own blog.

As a reporter, Steele has been working for Huffington Post, and he also cooperated with Land Rover and British Airways companies. The Daily Mail has even named Paul as the "world's most influential travel writer."

For this visit, Steele was accompanied by photographer Cindy Vriend. Both travellers made sure thousands of their Twitter followers knew what the trip to Azerbaijan was like: sharing pictures of country's capital, snowy mountains of Shahdag ski resort in Azerbaijan's Gusar region, and of course tasty Azerbaijani cuisine.

"The main thing that I get is that the country is open, it is more open than I assumed it would be. You have such friendly, secular society. And it is very safe here. Azerbaijan has got everything that you can possible want to see, from views, landscapes, nature, people, food music, culture, heritage, sports. And the events will help," Steele said.

Cindy Vriend, who tweeted that she "enjoyed a really nice Pahlava" on her way up through Azerbaijani mountains, told Trend that Azerbaijan is a beautiful country.

"It is something that I didn't expect before I even heard of Azerbaijan," she said.

Vriend said the biggest problem is that a lot of people don't know the country, and thus don't know what to expect, explaining that if people hear bad stories about a country, they believe them, which is why it is important to tell it how it really is, and it's really helping.

"Azerbaijan is quite a unique country with very friendly and helpful people," she said.