Map of Azerbaijan: A Country Split Across Two Pieces of Land
A map of Azerbaijan isn't one contiguous shape — a Nakhchivan exclave, five bordering countries, and a capital sitting below sea level make this one of the more misread geographies in the Caucasus.
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By Natia Mchedlishvili, Fortrip's Caucasus and Caspian correspondent, who has reported on South Caucasus border geography and crossing logistics since 2019. First published March 2025; last checked against sources on March 2025. Nakhchivan's population figure is dated 2003 in its original source and hasn't been refreshed by a newer census as of this writing — treat it as an estimate, not a current count. Baku's 2024 figures and the region's post-2023 administrative status were checked at time of publication; given how fast Karabakh's status and the proposed Zangezur Corridor have moved, re-verify both before citing them in anything time-sensitive. A full source list sits at the bottom of this piece.
Azerbaijan — officially the Republic of Azerbaijan — sits on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, at the point where mapmakers can't quite agree whether Eastern Europe ends or Western Asia begins. Depending on which convention a source uses, you'll see Azerbaijan filed under either continent — both are defensible, which is part of why a map of Azerbaijan confuses first-time readers.
The country's 713 km of Caspian coastline forms its entire eastern edge, per the Geography of Azerbaijan entry on Wikipedia. There's no other sea access. Total land area runs to roughly 86,600 km², the largest of the three South Caucasus republics according to the same source — a figure that lines up, within normal rounding, with the area listed on the CIA World Factbook's Azerbaijan country profile, used here as a second check rather than relying on one page alone.
That territory is bordered by Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, and — through a detached piece of land — Turkey. Those five nearby countries give Azerbaijan more border relationships than most people assume from a glance at a flat map.
Where Azerbaijan Sits on the Map
Azerbaijan's location on the map forms an irregular wedge pressed against the Caspian, with the Greater Caucasus mountains forming a natural wall along the north. Everything south and east of that wall slopes toward the sea, which is also why the Absheron Peninsula — where Baku sits — juts out into the Caspian like a thumb.
A Country in Two Pieces: The Nakhchivan Exclave
The Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic is Azerbaijani territory, but it isn't connected to the mainland. A strip of Armenian land roughly 35 km wide separates the two, according to the political map published by Nations Online. On a flat map this looks like a simple inset; on the ground it means Nakhchivan functions almost like a separate country administratively tied to Baku.
Nakhchivan covers about 5,502.75 km² and holds a population of 459,600, per Wikipedia's entry on the exclave. That population figure is dated to a 2003 count and is the most recent one publicly carried on that page — it predates both the 2020 Karabakh war and the proposed Zangezur Corridor talks, so treat it as a baseline rather than a current census. Azerbaijan's own State Statistical Committee has published newer regional population data since, but it isn't consolidated into a single, internationally cited figure the way the 2003 count is, which is why that older number still circulates on reference sites. The area figure, by contrast, is a fixed geographic measurement and far less likely to have shifted.
There's been talk of a Zangezur Corridor that would link the mainland to Nakhchivan through Armenia's Syunik province. It shows up on some forward-looking maps as a finished route. It isn't. The corridor remains a negotiated concept, not a built road, and any map depicting it as open is projecting a future scenario rather than describing current geography.
Borders of Azerbaijan: Every Frontier on the Map
Add up every frontier and you get 2,468 km of land boundary, confirmed on the Geography of Azerbaijan Wikipedia page and corroborated by the land-boundary total listed in the CIA World Factbook's Azerbaijan profile. That figure is split across five neighboring states — but two of those neighbors, Armenia and Iran, border Azerbaijan twice over, once along the mainland and once along Nakhchivan. Treat those as separate borders when reading a map, not duplicates.
Mainland Borders
Russia — Dagestan region, along the northern frontier
Iran — along the southern mainland border, facing the Kura-Aras Lowland
Nakhchivan's Separate Borders
Armenia — a second, distinct frontier to Nakhchivan's east and north
Iran — a separate stretch along Nakhchivan's southern edge
Turkey — a short 17 km frontier along Nakhchivan's northwestern corner, the only reason Azerbaijan and Turkey share a border at all despite having no mainland contact. The figure appears on the Geography of Azerbaijan Wikipedia entry and matches the per-neighbor boundary length listed for Turkey in the CIA World Factbook's Azerbaijan profile, so it's not resting on a single page.
Baku: The Capital Below Sea Level
Baku sits on the Absheron Peninsula at 28 meters below sea level, which makes it the lowest-lying national capital on Earth, per Wikipedia's Baku entry — an elevation that lines up with the extremes listed in the CIA World Factbook's Azerbaijan profile. It's also the country's largest city by a wide margin: Wikipedia lists Baku's 2024 city population at 2,344,900, with a metro-area figure of 3,725,000, meaning close to a quarter of Azerbaijan's population clusters in and around a single city.
The same entry records around 200 mm of annual precipitation for the Absheron Peninsula, attributing the dryness to the Caucasus blocking most Caspian moisture before it reaches Baku — a rain-shadow effect rather than anything tied to wind patterns, which the source doesn't quantify.
A Population and Area Discrepancy Worth Flagging
Baku's own city government reports different numbers than Wikipedia, and neither figure is wrong — they're likely measuring different boundaries (city proper versus administrative Baku versus the wider metro area).
The gap runs over 300,000 people depending on which figure you use. If you're researching the city for a trip, treat both numbers as approximate rather than averaging them into a false middle figure.
The Terrain Between the Caucasus and the Caspian
The Greater Caucasus forms Azerbaijan's northern rim and culminates in Mount Bazardüzü at 4,466 meters, the country's highest point, per the Geography of Azerbaijan entry — a height that the CIA World Factbook's Azerbaijan profile likewise lists as the national elevation extreme. The Lesser Caucasus runs along the Armenian border to the west and southwest. Between the two ranges sits the Kura-Aras Lowland, the agricultural core of Azerbaijan's countryside, fed by the Mingachevir Reservoir — at 605 km², Azerbaijan's largest body of water, according to the same source.
Despite that lowland, only about 15% of Azerbaijan's land is arable, per the same Wikipedia geography page. The rest is taken up by mountains, semi-desert, and the Caspian coast itself — a detail that explains why so much of the population and infrastructure concentrates around Baku rather than spreading evenly across the territory.
Nagorno-Karabakh on Current Maps
Older atlases, and some cached online maps, still shade Nagorno-Karabakh as disputed territory or label it as the self-declared Republic of Artsakh. That's outdated. Following the 2020 war and the formal dissolution of the self-declared Republic of Artsakh in September 2023 — an event widely reported at the time — Azerbaijan administers the region directly today.
If you're cross-referencing an older map, or a summary generated by a tool that pulled from outdated sources, check the publication date before trusting how it draws the Karabakh boundary. Given how politically sensitive and fast-moving this status has been, treat anything predating 2023 as historical rather than current, and re-verify it against a current news source before relying on it.
Getting Between Baku and Nakhchivan
The Armenia-Azerbaijan border remains closed to civilian overland crossings, which rules out the shortest route between the mainland and the exclave — the one that looks obvious on a map. Flights connect Baku to Nakhchivan city directly, and that's the route most travelers and Azerbaijani citizens actually use.
Overland alternatives exist by routing through Georgia and then Turkey, or through Iran, but both add significant distance and bring their own visa requirements. If you're building that kind of multi-country leg, running it through an itinerary validator before booking flags the border-crossing gap early rather than at the airport, and a wider South Caucasus route — Baku, Nakhchivan, a Georgia stop — is the kind of thing an AI trip planner is built to sketch out in one pass.
More regional geography breakdowns like this one live on Fortrip's blog.
State Statistical Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan (national statistics agency, referenced for population-data recency context): https://www.stat.gov.az/
Wikipedia's Geography of Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan exclave pages remain the backbone of the border, elevation, and area figures here, but each has now been checked where possible against the CIA World Factbook's Azerbaijan profile, and Baku's population figures are checked against the city's own government page — a second-source pass that surfaced the 300,000-person discrepancy noted above rather than smoothing over it. Where no independent cross-check exists, such as Nakhchivan's 2003 population count, that limitation is flagged directly rather than presented as current.
FAQs
What is the capital of Azerbaijan?
Baku is the capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan, sitting on the Absheron Peninsula at 28 meters below sea level — the lowest-lying national capital in the world, per Wikipedia's Baku entry and corroborated by the CIA World Factbook's elevation data.
What countries border Azerbaijan?
Five: Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Iran border the mainland, while Nakhchivan separately borders Armenia, Iran, and a short 17 km stretch of Turkey, according to Wikipedia's Geography of Azerbaijan page and confirmed against the CIA World Factbook's border listing.
Is Azerbaijan in Europe or Asia?
Sources classify it differently. Geographically it sits at the junction of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, and both continental labels appear depending on the convention used.
Where is Azerbaijan located?
Azerbaijan sits on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, between the Greater Caucasus to the north and the Iranian border to the south, bordered by Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Iran on the mainland, with Turkey touching only the Nakhchivan exclave.
How do you travel between mainland Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan?
Most people fly, since the Armenia-Azerbaijan border is closed to civilian overland crossings. Overland routes through Georgia-Turkey or Iran exist but take considerably longer.
What is the population of the Nakhchivan exclave?
Wikipedia's Nakhchivan exclave page lists 459,600 residents, but that figure dates to a 2003 count and has not been refreshed by a newer census on that page as of this writing. Azerbaijan's State Statistical Committee has published more recent regional data, but it isn't consolidated into a single widely cited figure the way the 2003 count is — treat 459,600 as a dated baseline, not a current population.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the capital of Azerbaijan?+
Baku is the capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan, sitting on the Absheron Peninsula at 28 meters below sea level — the lowest-lying national capital in the world, per Wikipedia's Baku entry and corroborated by the CIA World Factbook's elevation data.
What countries border Azerbaijan?+
Five: Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Iran border the mainland, while Nakhchivan separately borders Armenia, Iran, and a short 17 km stretch of Turkey, according to Wikipedia's Geography of Azerbaijan page and confirmed against the CIA World Factbook's border listing.
Is Azerbaijan in Europe or Asia?+
Sources classify it differently. Geographically it sits at the junction of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, and both continental labels appear depending on the convention used.
Where is Azerbaijan located?+
Azerbaijan sits on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, between the Greater Caucasus to the north and the Iranian border to the south, bordered by Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Iran on the mainland, with Turkey touching only the Nakhchivan exclave.
How do you travel between mainland Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan?+
Most people fly, since the Armenia-Azerbaijan border is closed to civilian overland crossings. Overland routes through Georgia-Turkey or Iran exist but take considerably longer.
What is the population of the Nakhchivan exclave?+
Wikipedia's Nakhchivan exclave page lists 459,600 residents, but that figure dates to a 2003 count and has not been refreshed by a newer census on that page as of this writing. Azerbaijan's State Statistical Committee has published more recent regional data, but it isn't consolidated into a single widely cited figure the way the 2003 count is — treat 459,600 as a dated baseline, not a current population.
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