GOBUSTAN – ATESHGAH
Duration: 1 Day (6-7 hours)
Pick-up & Drop-off: hotel (within Baku)
Guide: Personal English speaking guide (other languages on request)
Transportation: Personal Driver & air-conditioned vehicle
Tickets: Entrance fees Gobustan Museum & Ateshgah
Customizable: Yes
Not Included: Any Meals, Fees for taking photos in historical sites, Personal Expenses, Insurance
Optional Sites: Azerbaijan State Carpet Museum; Azerbaijan History Museum; National Art Museum of Azerbaijan
Museum of Petroglyphsis (outdoor museum)
Gobustan or by other name Museum of Petroglyphsis (outdoor museum) located approximately 70 km from Baku. Prehistoric rock drawings – petroglyphs – are an art “archive” of the human evolution on Earth. The “articles” of such archives are the first transmissions from the human “I” to the outer world. There are a few of such outdoor “archives” in Azerbaijan. One of them, the largest, is located in Gobustan, at the Baku State Reserve of History, Ethnography and Arts, near Baku. It is a rocky massif on the bottom of the southeast part of the Great Caucasus Range, near the Caspian Sea and a modern highway built on the ancient Shirvan road.
In mountains of Gobustan Beyukdash, Kichikdash, Djingirdag and Shighgaya there were concentrated witnesses of the past of azerbaijanian nation of the epoch of Stone Age and ongoing periods – rocky paintings, camp of man, tombstones and etc. The most significant of them are rocky pictures – petroglyphs, carved by primitive men on walls of caves, rocks and stony lumps. The aforesaid primitive monuments of art reflect culture, economy, world outlook, customs and traditions of ancient azerbaijanian peoples.
Ateshgah Temple
The temple of fire worshippers Ateshgah is located at the Apsheron peninsula at the outskirts of Surakhani village in 30 km from the centre of Baku and was revered in different times by Zoroastrians, Hindus and Sikhs. This territory is known for such unique natural phenomenon as burning natural gas outlets (underground gas coming onto surface contacts oxygen and lights up). The temple in its present state was constructed in the 17th-18th centuries. It was built by the Baku-based Hindu community related to Sikhs. Pentagonal complex has an open courtyard with temple- altar in the center which was the place of pilgrimage for worshippers. By the decree of the President of Azerbaijan Ateshgah was declared a State historical-architectural reserve. This museum under the open sky was recently restored. Different workshops and souvenir galleries are located here now.