One thing I couldn’t miss out on while in Baku was visiting Qobustan Rock Art, another Azerbaijan‘s UNESCO World Heritage site. The tour also highlighted one unique landscape I was curious about—mud volcanos. So, the day trip was kinda muddy and rocky…literally.
It took about 45 minutes on the road from Baku’s Old City to Qobustan. We stopped at a local shop for refreshments and changed vehicles to get to the mud volcanos. I got the shotgun in the taxi, the best view for time lapsing the off-road drives in and out. That was fun. Piles of mud formed an alien-like landscape. But traces of tourists were evident.
Then we moved on to the Petroglyph Museum as a pre-lecture for the rock arts. I could see why this rocky mount was significant to human history. The graphics on the rocks spanned from the Prehistoric period to the Middle Ages. Imagine how magical and spiritual the place was at the time as many shamans were portrayed on the rocks. There was also a special treat for us. They were celebrating the Persian New Year at the same time.
After Qobustan, we had an Azerbaijani lunch and got to know more of the other tour members. And there were a couple of more attractions around Baku the tour took us to: Yanar Dag (burning mountain) and Atashgah of Baku (fire temple of Baku.) So we got muddy, rocky, and fiery at the end of the day. As for me, I had my first night out in the city afterwards. Too many grogs as always.