Qobustan

From Baku - from the Old Town/Maiden's Tower/sea-front road take the number 120 or 88 bus to 20-Ci saha (Field of 20) bus stop, 0.20 manat; or bus 125 from Maiden's Tower to the end. Then take the 195 bound for Alat and get off in the town of Qobustan, 0.80 manat. Stop at the center of Gobustan village, just past the overhead pass (not at the entrance to the village where the driver may drop you and there are some taxis waiting). The museum is a 3.6 km walk in the opposite direction of the sea towards the hill with many rocks on, no shade, but flat to the entrance, if taking a taxi be sure to haggle for your fare. The Roman graffiti is on a rock in the middle of a road that branches off from the road at the base of the hill with the museum on it. The area around the museum is good for hiking, there are many dormant or extinct mud volcanoes that have been heavily eroded, making for spectacular scenery. The entry price for the park (includes the museum) is: adults 4 manat; children 0.20 manat, students 1 manat, parking 1 manat (Oct 2017). Plus, if you want, 6 manat for an English-speaking guide.

Qobustan is best known for its rock petroglyphs (a UNESCO World Heritage site) and mud volcanoes.

• Qobustan National ParkThis is a UNESCO World Heritage site. - This is a is a hill and mountain site occupying the southeast end of the Greater Caucasus mountain ridge in Azerbaijan, mainly in the basin of Jeyrankechmaz River, between the rivers Pirsagat and Sumgait. It is located west of the settlement of Qobustan, on the west bank of the Caspian Sea. Date back as far as the 12th century BCE. The invading armies of Alexander the Great and Trajan also left some interesting graffiti. The territory of Qobustan is cut up with numerous, sometimes rather deep ravines (in Azerbaijani: gobu). That is a suggested origin of the Qobustan geographical name. This is a national historical landmark of Azerbaijan in an attempt to preserve the ancient carvings, relics, mud volcanoes and gas-stones in the region. The mountains Boyukdash, Kichikdash, Jingirdag, and the Yazili hill were taken under legal government protection. Throughout many centuries under impact of the sun, wind, seismic activity and various atmospheric precipitation, blocks of stones broke away from the edges of a vast limestone layer and rolled down the slopes. Here, in the area displaying the fantastic scene of destruction, the huge blocks of stones and rocks chaotically pressed against each other, forming about 20 big and small caves and the canopies serving as a natural shelter to the inhabitants. - Qobustan is very rich in archaeological monuments. The reserve has more than 6,000 rock engravings dating back between 5,000 - 40,000 years. Most of the rock engravings depict primitive men, animals, battle-pieces, ritual dances, bullfights, boats with armed oarsmen, warriors with lances in their hands, camel caravans, pictures of sun and stars. Flora: The vegetative world of Qobustan has a character that is common for deserts and semi-deserts. It consists of ephemeris grasses and bushes, wormwood and similar long-term plants. Among heaps of stones and rocks a wild rose, a dwarfish cherry, Hibernian honeysuckle, a juniper, wild pear, wild fig, wild pomegranate, grapes and some other kinds of trees and bushes are rather often met decorating the stern landscape. Fauna: The fauna of Qobustan has strongly grown poor for the last decades of years. The natural inhabitants of Qobustan now are rare foxes, jackals, wolves, hares and wild cats, mountain chickens, wild pigeons, larks alongside with numerous snakes and lizards and some others. - Mud volcanoes: Azerbaijan and its Caspian coastline are home to nearly 400 mud volcanoes, more than half the total throughout the world. In 2001, one mud volcano 15 km from Baku made world headlines when it suddenly started ejecting flames 15 m high. - Many geologists as well as locals and international mud tourists trek to such places as the Firuz Crater, Qobustan, Salyan and end up happily covered in mud which is thought to have medicinal qualities. On the average, every twenty years or so, a mud volcano may explode with great force in Qobustan, shooting flames hundreds of metres into the sky, and depositing tonnes of mud on the surrounding area. The appearance of the Zoroastrian religion in Azerbaijan almost 2,000 years ago is closely connected with these geological phenomena, and Azerbaijan's etymology - Land of the Eternal Fire derives from its Zoroastrian history.

Other attractions

• James Bond oil field

• Bibi Heybət Mosque