Gobustan rock art
Six thousand carvings, some forty thousand years old, among mud volcanoes.
Duration
4 hrs – 6 hrs
Best time
In the morning
Open
Every day
Entry price
To confirm
Gobustan holds over six thousand rock carvings on limestone blocks, made between forty thousand and five thousand years ago. There are hunters, ritual dances, aurochs, and rowing boats that led Thor Heyerdahl to suppose a link with Scandinavian seafarers.
A first-century Latin inscription records the passage of a Roman legion — the easternmost known Roman trace. A few kilometres away, a field of mud volcanoes spits cold mud continuously; Azerbaijan has the highest concentration of them in the world.
Getting there
Sixty kilometres south of Baku, an hour by road. The mud volcanoes need a four-wheel drive — the track is impassable in an ordinary car.
What the price covers
paid entry to the site and museum, rate to be confirmed
What to bring
- 1.5 L of water
- Windbreaker
- Cap
- Dry bag
Rules on site
The track to the mud volcanoes must be done in a four-wheel drive, and the drivers wait in the museum car park: agree the price before getting in. The site is windy, unshaded and has no shops.