Day Trips around Baku, Azerbaijan

  Azerbaijan, as a country, was introduced in our previous blog, which can be accessed here - harshad : A day in Baku City, Azerbaijan

This blog covers one of the  day excursions from Baku in detail and just mentions the other day trips that travellers can enjoy during their visit to Azerbaijan

Day trip to Yanardag, Ateshgah, Mud Volcano, and Gobustan.

Yanardag. Yanardag literally means Burning Mountain.  This natural wonder is about 3000 years old. The natural gas beneath the ground has been seeping through the rocks and burning for all these years, and unlike Mud Volcanos, which are formed by natural gas that comes out with mud, this gas discharge is clear gas without mud.

Yagardag Selfie Point

This area was once home to Zoroastrians, and the fire served as a bond between them and nature. This natural wonder is part of the historical fire worship practised in this area, like the worship performed at the Fire Temple described in the latter part of this blog.

Eternal Fire burning for over 3K years

Admirers of Yanardag Fire

Gubustan.  This place of historic importance has Petroglyphs, or rock engravings, dating back to over 5,000 BCE or earlier. The prehistoric men of that era engraved a variety of objects, such as people, animals, and even a boat carrying people, etc. 

This place is really intriguing. Prehistoric people had knowledge of boats, river travel, dances, and animals, which is really surprising.

Glimpse of Gobustan

Petroglyphs (rock engravings), Human figures, People rowing a Boat

Animals

Ateshgah. This is a 17th-century Hindu, Sikh, and Zoroastrian Fire Temple. This has a fort-like pentagonal perimeter wall with rooms built inside along the walls. These rooms were most likely meant for travelers and monks. There are Hindu, Sikh, and Zoroastrian inscriptions on the stone above the doors of these peripheral rooms in Sanskrit and Farsi, indicating widespread cultural exchange between these communities in those times. The fire here, once upon a time, was due to natural gas seeping through the earth; however, today the fire that is seen is lit by natural piped gas supplied to this place. The religious importance of this place for Hindus, Sikhs, and Parsis must have been very high about two centuries ago.

Ateshgah, the peripheral wall with the entrance gate

The Market complex, inside the main compound but outside Ateshgah walls

Main Fire Temple, Ateshgah

The Atesh (Fire)

Stone Tablet in Devnagari at the entrance of one of the rooms

Bhagwan Ganesh in one of the rooms

Stone Tablet in Gurumukhi

Mud Volcano.   The readers know that Azharbijan is called the land of fire. This is because there is a lot of natural gas under the earth in Azerbaijan, and that gives birth to places like Yonardag and a large number of mud volcanoes. These mud volcanoes are formed by gas seeping through the Earth's crust, and this gas brings along water and mud from beneath the Earth's crust. 

Mud Volcanoes, the Landscape

One such area where tourists can see mud volcanoes in action is part of Gobustan National Park. You can see small raised mounds of earth. On top of these mounds, the mud volcanoes can be seen. However, it is not necessary that the mud volcanoes can be seen only on top of the earth mounds; sometimes the mud volcanoes may sprout from the plain area also. 

Mud Volcano close up

Another Shot

It is fun to watch mud volcanoes in action from a close quarter, as they are warm but not hot, their plume does not rise high, and they are very safe even when one is very close to them. The bud-bud sound, water, and mud coming out make these Mud Volcanos an interesting place to see and enjoy. 

Conclusion. This is an enjoyable trip that can be easily done in a day. One must learn a bit more about these places before the trip to derive the full value of this trip.

Other day trips from Baku (not done by us). There are mainly three to four circuits that can be done as a day trip from Baku. We described one such trip above. The other trips that can be done from Baku are -

(a) Guba, Candy Cane Mountain, and Khinaliq Village.

(b) Shamakhi, Ismailli, Gabala Mountain, and Sheki (Practically four regions of Azerbaijan).

(c) Khizi and Shahdag (the European part of Azerbaijan).

There are various combinations that get created out of the above-mentioned destinations. One can pick and choose and travel accordingly.

It may also be a good idea, subject to the availability of time, to stay in the mountain region for three to four days rather than making a day trip.

This is the end of this blog. All the comments are welcome. They encourage us to produce more and better blogs.