Lankaran is the Azerbaijan almost nobody expects: green, humid and subtropical. At the far south of the country, between the Caspian Sea and the Talysh Mountains, on the border with Iran, this region breaks with the arid, oil-rich image of Baku. Here it rains, tea plantations and rice paddies grow, the Hyrcanian forests hold trees that survived the last ice age, and the wetlands fill with migratory birds. It is the most exotic and natural corner of Azerbaijan, with a climate and flavours all its own.
The city of Lankaran, capital of this region, is a quiet place with character: it has a 19th-century lighthouse, the Khan's manor house, a lively bazaar, remains of an old fortress and a strong Talysh identity, the Iranian-speaking people who live in the south. But the real treasure lies in the surroundings: Hirkan National Park, with its ancient forests and the elusive Caucasian leopard; Lake Khanbulan; the tea plantations; mountain villages such as Lerik, famous for the longevity of its residents; and the Caspian beaches.
This guide helps you discover the subtropical south: what to see in the city, how to get around the region, how to get there from Baku by train or bus, what things cost, where to try Talysh cuisine (with its walnut sauces and unique dishes) and how to visit the Hyrcanian forests and the wetlands. Lankaran is a destination for lovers of nature, culture and good food, and a side of Azerbaijan so green it surprises.
For centuries Lankaran, in southern Azerbaijan, was an enclave of the Talysh region, land of the Iranian-speaking Talysh people. In the 18th century it became the capital of the Talysh (or Lankaran) Khanate, a small state that, because of its border position, was caught in the struggle between Persia and the Russian Empire. In 1813, after the Russo-Persian War, the Treaty of Gulistan brought the region into the Russian Empire, and in 1828 the Treaty of Turkmenchay set the border with Persia on the Astara River, which still today divides the Talysh between Azerbaijan and Iran. Under Russian and then Soviet rule, Lankaran developed tea, citrus and rice farming, taking advantage of its subtropical climate, unique in the country. That history of a border khanate, the Talysh people and subtropical farming is told on our history page.
Read the full history ↓No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Anyone who thinks of Azerbaijan usually pictures oil deserts, eternal flames and modern Baku beside a grey Caspian. Lankaran, at the country's far southern end, overturns all of that in one go: it is green, humid and subtropical. It rains here, tea plantations and rice paddies grow, the forests hold trees that survived the last ice age, and the air smells of sea, forest and citrus. It is the most exotic and least known corner of the country.
The key to this uniqueness is geography. Lankaran is wedged between the Caspian Sea and the Talysh Mountains, on a narrow humid strip that takes in moisture from the sea and traps it against the mountains. This subtropical microclimate, unique in Azerbaijan, made possible vegetation and farming that would be impossible anywhere else in the country, and shaped a region with its own personality, in some ways closer to northern Iran than to Baku.
Alongside this different nature comes a different culture: that of the Talysh, an Iranian-speaking people who live in the south on both sides of the border. Their language, cuisine and traditions give Lankaran a special character. The history of this region is that of a frontier land, green and singular, where peoples, empires and ecosystems meet.
The Talysh region, centred on Lankaran, takes its name from the Talysh people, who have lived here for centuries. The Talysh speak an Iranian language, related to Persian and distinct from Azerbaijani (which is Turkic), and keep their own culture, music and cuisine. Their presence links southern Azerbaijan with the Iranian cultural world that stretches south, beyond today's border with Iran.
In Antiquity and the Middle Ages, these lands belonged to the various powers that ruled the Caucasus and northern Persia: they fell within the orbit of the Persian empires (Achaemenid, Sasanian) and of the states that followed one another in the region. The subtropical Caspian strip, with its dense forests and humid climate, was always somewhat apart, hard to control and with a life of its own.
Over time, the Talysh region took shape as a territory with a strong identity, with Lankaran as its main town on the coast. Its position, where the Caucasus meets the Iranian world, made it a cultural crossroads, but also a contested borderland, a trait that would define its modern history.
In the 18th century, as central Persian power weakened, small semi-independent states known as khanates sprang up across the eastern Caucasus. The Talysh region became the Talysh Khanate (also called the Lankaran Khanate), with its capital in Lankaran and its own dynasty. It was a period when the region enjoyed autonomy and prominence, but it also got caught up in a struggle between forces far bigger than itself.
The Talysh Khanate had the misfortune (and the strategic importance) of sitting right in the friction zone between two expanding empires: Qajar Persia to the south and the Russian Empire, advancing from the north. The khans of Talysh manoeuvred between the two, seeking protection and autonomy in an always precarious balance. The region became both battleground and prize in the Russo-Persian wars of the early 19th century.
That frontier status shaped Lankaran's destiny. The city and its khanate were a battlefield and a bargaining chip between the powers, and their future was decided not so much by the will of the Talysh as by treaties the empires signed far away. The outcome would come with the Russo-Persian wars and the treaties that redrew the map of the Caucasus.
The Russo-Persian wars of the early 19th century sealed the region's fate. Under the Treaty of Gulistan (1813), Persia ceded much of the eastern Caucasus to the Russian Empire, including the Talysh area. And under the Treaty of Turkmenchay (1828), after a second war, the final border between the Russian Empire and Persia was fixed on the Astara River, a little south of Lankaran. That line, drawn by two empires, split the Talysh people in two: some ended up on the Russian side (today Azerbaijan) and others on the Persian side (today Iran).
That border, with few changes, is the same one that separates Azerbaijan from Iran today, and it still divides Talysh families and communities on either side. It is one of many cases in which the decisions of great powers cut a people in half, with no regard for its cultural unity. Lankaran thus became the main Talysh city on the Russian side, capital of a border region.
Under Russian imperial rule, Lankaran was absorbed into the Tsarist administration and began to modernise: the city's lighthouse, the Khan's manor house and several buildings still standing date from this period. The region, with its unique climate, also began to be farmed in a new way, laying the foundations for the Lankaran of tea and citrus we know today.
It was above all in the Soviet period that the Lankaran region developed its subtropical farming vocation. The Soviet Union, which needed to grow at home crops that only thrive in warm, humid climates, saw southern Azerbaijan as one of the few places in its entire territory suited to tea, citrus and rice. Large areas were planted with tea, lemon and orange growing was encouraged, and production was organised into collective farms.
Lankaran thus became Azerbaijan's 'subtropical garden' and an important source of tea and fruit for the whole USSR. The green tea fields that carpet the hills today are a legacy of that era, as is the region's strong farming identity. Tea in particular became deeply woven into the culture: Azerbaijan is a country where tea is drunk at all hours, and much of what is consumed has its roots in the south.
The Soviet era also brought infrastructure, schools and a degree of modernisation to the region, though, as in the rest of the country, at the cost of political repression and limits on local identities. Talysh culture and language survived, passed down in homes and villages, waiting for better times to be recognised.
With Azerbaijan's independence in 1991, Lankaran remained the capital of the subtropical south, relying on its agriculture (tea, citrus, rice, vegetables) and, increasingly, on nature and cultural tourism. UNESCO's 2019 recognition of Azerbaijan's Hyrcanian forests as a World Heritage Site put the international spotlight on the region's natural wealth and on the need to protect it.
Today, Lankaran offers travellers a combination found nowhere else in the country: Hirkan National Park with its ancient forests and Caucasian leopard, wetlands full of migratory birds, tea plantations, the Talysh Mountains with villages famous for their long-lived residents such as Lerik, the Caspian beaches and one of the tastiest cuisines in Azerbaijan, with lavangi as its flagship dish. All with the stamp of Talysh culture and a green climate unlike any other corner of the country.
For anyone travelling around Azerbaijan, heading south means discovering its most unexpected side. Lankaran shows that this country is much more than oil and desert: it is also humid forest, tea fields, wetlands and a surprising diversity of peoples and landscapes. On the border with Iran, between the sea and the mountains, the old capital of the Talysh Khanate remains the gateway to a green, flavourful and deeply singular Azerbaijan.
