Gobustan,Mud Volcanoes & Absheron Peninsula full day tour

What's Included

Meeting and pickup

Itinerary

• 1
  Mud Volcanoes

  Whenever we reach to Gobustan area, we lead to the Mud Volcanoes. Home to nearly a third of the world's mud volcanoes, Azerbaijan features a messy, bubbling, and sometimes explosive landscape. Mud volcanoes are closely associated with hydrocarbon and petrochemical stores underground, hence the gas trying to escape to the surface. A few of these gas leaks are constantly on fire, shooting small perpetual flames into the air, and some believe that these perpetual flames are strongly connected to the appearance of the Zoroastrian religion in Azerbaijan some 2,000 years ago. Every 20 years or so, one of these mud/gas volcanoes will ignite deep below the surface and create a massive explosion. While generally not dangerous to people, as they are far outside of most city centers, it is believed that six shepherds and over 2,000 sheep were killed by a mud volcano in Bozdagh, Azerbaijan.

  30 minutes • Admission ticket not included
• 2
  Gobustan Rock Art

  After coming back from Mud Volcanoes, we go first to the Gobustan museum, and after spending some time there, we go to the Gobustan Rock Art (open-air museum). Gobustan State Reserve, located west of the settlement of Gobustan, about 40 miles southwest of the centre of Baku, was established in 1966 when the region was declared a national historical landmark of Azerbaijan in an attempt to preserve the ancient carvings, mud volcanoes, and gas-stones in the region. Gobustan State Reserve is very rich in archeological monuments, the reserve has more than 6,000 rock carvings, which depict primitive people, animals, battle-pieces, ritual dances, bullfights, boats with armed oarsmen, warriors with lances in their hands, camel caravans, pictures of sun and stars, on the average dating back to 5,000-20,000 years.

  1 hour 30 minutes • Admission ticket not included
• 3
  Bibi-Heybat Mosque

  On the way back from Gobustan area we will pass through the Bibi-Heybat Mosque, where we will stop for a while

  15 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 4
  Yanar Dag

  Going on our tour next destination will be Yanardag (Burning Mountain), where our guest will discover the natural fire burning steadily. Yanar Dag (Azerbaijani: Yanar Dağ, meaning "burning mountain") is a natural gas fire which blazes continuously on a hillside on the Absheron Peninsula on the Caspian Sea near Baku. Unlike mud volcanoes, the Yanar Dag flame burns fairly steadily, as it involves a steady seep of gas from the subsurface. It is claimed that the Yanar Dag flame was only noted when accidentally lit by a shepherd in the 1950s.

  20 minutes • Admission ticket not included
• 5
  Ateshgah - Fire Temple

  The Baku Ateshgah (from Persian: آتشگاه‎, Atashgāh, Azerbaijani: Atəşgah), often called the "Fire Temple of Baku" is a castle-like religious temple in Surakhani town, a suburb in Baku, Azerbaijan. Based on Persian inscriptions, the temple was used as a Hindu, Sikh, and Zoroastrian place of worship. "Atash" (آتش) is the Persian word for fire. The pentagonal complex, which has a courtyard surrounded by cells for monks and a tetrapillar-altar in the middle, was built during the 17th and 18th centuries. It was abandoned in the late 19th century, probably due to the dwindling of the Indian population in the area. The natural eternal flame went out in 1969, after nearly a century of exploitation of petroleum and gas in the area, but is now lit by gas piped from the nearby city.

  50 minutes • Admission ticket not included

Additional info

• Suitable for all physical fitness levels

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