Azerbaijan, Baku, July 24 / Trend E. Kosolapova/
Azerbaijan is an attractive tourist destination and a wonderful place to see, Professor of Orientalism at the Oxford University Robert Hoyland said Trend in an interview.
Hoyland praised the sea, the sun and the beaches of Azerbaijan, as well as the country's great variety of scenery, mountains in the North, different cities from very different periods, and ancient monuments.
Dr. Sarah Waidler from Cambridge University, who came to study Azerbaijan's history with Hoyland, agreed that Azerbaijan is a wonderful place for tourists to visit.
Hoyland said there is an idea to make a documentary about Azerbaijan's history and if it is successful it will be shown on BBC.
"Azerbaijan is a land of different traditions, different peoples, experiences, with contacts with different countries all around... It was shaped by many different forces, had many different neighbors. Diversity will be the key aspect of the documentary," he said.
In turn Waidler believes that it will be very interesting for people in the UK to know more about Azerbaijan because it has a rich culture and in general is a very interesting country as many people passed through its territory over time.
The documentary is under the working process and the time of its presentation has not been scheduled yet.
"I know quite a lot [about Azerbaijan] from the ancient sources. The idea was for me to travel, tomeet local academics, archeologists, to talk to them, to see what they found during their work here... We need to find out voices from Azerbaijan, local experts, residents who can tell us more about their own country. That will make it much more interesting for the audience in the UK," Hoyland said.
Within the visit to Azerbaijan, Robert Hoyland and Sarah Waidler met with Rector of Baku Branch of M.V.Lomonosov Moscow State University, professor Nargiz Pashayeva and the sides discussed cooperation between the UK, and Oxford University in particular, and Azerbaijan in such spheres as history, culture and the idea about having shared archeological missions and creating possibility for UK and Azerbaijani students to work together on exploring Azerbaijan's history. Professor Hoyland and Dr. Waidler were very grateful to Professor Pashayeva for an interesting introduction to the Baku branch and the meeting with her.
"We hope it is the beginning of a long relationship," Hoyland said.
Hoyland and Waidler also said they had a wonderful impression of Baku where modern buildings and ancient monuments adjoin each other. Hoyland said the Old City (Icheri Sheher) where traditions of different periods presented starting from Pre-Islamic era, is a very interesting place.
"At the same time the city is quite young and modern," he noted. "It's a very nice place for people to enjoy," Hoyland said.
