Absheron Peninsula & Gobustan & Mud volcanoes tour

If you are want to visit Azerbaijan, one of the “must see” natural wonders is definitely Yanar Dag (burning mountain). It is located about 25 km from the capital Baku in Mehemedi village of Absheron.

A 10 m long wall of fire is never extinguishes. It is burning continuously alongside the edge of the hill. The scene is naturally is at its most spectacular at night. Tourists and locals alike can view the fire from a nearby tea house during the nights. The height of the flames changes, but in some moments it reach to 3 metres (9.8 ft) from the ground.

The famous French writer Alexandre Dumas also witnessed these flames. He expressed his feelings: “This is absolutely the most interesting and fascinating thing, which can be seen nowhere else,” he wrote. Even today, the flames never fail to amaze tourists and locals alike. Yanar Dag is now a protected site and there are extensive archaeological studies are going on. Local lore states that it was a shepherd that accidentally ignited the fire in the 1950s by tossing a cigarette, and that it has burnt ever since.

In early history Azerbaijan was called the “land of the sacred fire”. Some 2,600 years ago, Zarathustra started new religion- Zoroastrianism, one of the first major monotheistic beliefs. In Absheron, there were many temples of Fire. From their variety, the most famous is the well-preserved temple Ateshgah (“the Fire Place”). The temple is in Surakhany district of Baku, about 30 kilometers east far of the town center. The temple was built over a pocket of natural gas that fueled a vent providing an ‘eternal’ fire. This kind of use of fire in Zoroastrian temples led to the followers of Zoroaster (Zarathustra).

Historians and archaeologists have argued over the construction date of the temple. Some defend that there was a Zoroastrian temple there since the 6th century. However, others delay that event for another seven centuries- to XIII century. After that, Islam started to spread in Azerbaijan and some Zoroastrians escaped to India. Despite that, trade links with India in later centuries continued. It led to renewed contacts with the fire-worshipers, who had migrated from to Northern India. During the 17th and 18th Century, Indian merchants and masons established their settlements in Baku and rebuilt the site.

Ateshgah temple has a mixture of Indian and Azerbaijani architectural styles. It is a surviving proof of historical relationship between these countries. There is a wall with a guest room over the gate surrounding the building. There are still some wall inscriptions in Sanskrit, including poems. Cells for pilgrims line the wall inside. It surrounds the main temple in the center- a quadrangular pavilion with the fire on the altar inside. Moreover, next to the temple there is a rectangular hole, where bodies of dead Hindus were burned in the sacred fire.

obustan is a place on the south-east of the Great Caucasian Mountains about 60 km far south of Baku. It is a semi-desert region with numerous gullies and ravines. The meaning of Gobustan in local language means “ravine land”. Here one can find amazing evidences of the past, rock paintings, caves- sites and objects of material culture.

According to the coverage of the historical periods, Gobustan has no analogue in the world. The findings from here describes the reality from X-VIII millennia BC. until Middle Ages. Settled since the Stone Age, the area is one of the main and most ancient museums of rock engravings (petroglyphs) in the world. The area petroglyphs contain very important elements of ancient lifestyle of stone age humans. The area is national historical landmark since 1966 to achieve better preservation of the rock paintings.

The mud volcanoes are very unique natural phenomenon. Almost half of the mud volcanoes in our planet are in the territory of Azerbaijan. Therefore, Azerbaijan is sometimes referred as “home of the mud volcanoes”.

The first activities of volcanoes started 30-35 million years ago in southeast of Caucasus. The findings resulted from the early eruptions of Gobustan and other places of Azerbaijan prove that historically, the area was home to several hundreds active mud volcanoes. The largest mud volcano in the world is Taragay located in the south of Gobustan. Its height is 410 meters. Goturdag volcano- the only volcano in the world, where constant eruptions has been taking place for many years is also in Gobustan area. On September 5, 2004 the greatest mud volcano in the territory of Azerbaijan was added into the Guinness World Records.

The earliest information about mud volcanoes in Azerbaijan was mentioned in ancient journals and records of Arabian travelers. In the travel notes, Dimashki noted: “There is an island in the Caspian Sea, where a big volcano producing fire similar to a huge candle. The fire is visible from land from a long distance”.

The Bibi-Heybat Mosque includes the tomb of Ukeyma Khanum (a descendant of Muhammad), and today is the spiritual center for the Muslims of the region and one of the major monuments of Islamic architecture in Azerbaijan.