The Trip to the Country of Fires

Welcome to the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, one of the most rapidly developing Eurasian cities and the largest city in the Caucasus with a population of around 2.2 million people. A very beautiful historic place, Baku is also an artistic and cultural centre, with fast growing industrial and commercial sectors at that.

Your first acquaintance with Baku’s unique and wonderful places of interestwill be in unusual circumstances: you will see them wrapped in darkness and mysteriously illuminated with artificial light.

The excursion to Baku will start from the Mountain Park, the city’s highest point. From there you can obtain an amazing bird’s-eye view of the city and the bay. The area encompasses Azerbaijan’s National Assembly, the Martyrs’ Lane and the world-famous Flame Towers. The well-thought-out illumination system makes the park even more beautiful and spectacular in the nighttime.

The excursion will go further to Baku Boulevard, which is one of the most remarkable spots in the city, favoured greatly by the locals and the guests of the capital. Decorated with flower beds and bushes of intricate shapes, it combines vast open areas closer to the sea and a shady alley. From the boulevard the tourists will follow down Nizami Street, a cosy, beautifully illuminated European-style mall. The street features a large number of shops and cafes, which attract a great number of people, particularly in the evening. The next in our evening programme is the Fountains Square. This is a wonderful place featuring a series of fountains with interesting designs and sculptures representing people awaiting their friends.

Our acquaintance with Azerbaijan and the Apsheron Peninsula will continue in the village of Surakhany, where we shall visit a Zoroastrian temple. Elements of the fire cult and Zoroastrianism can still be found in Azerbaijan today, as the latter was a predominant religion in the region for thousands of years. This is confirmed by the country’s name proper, which, according to one of the versions, translates from ancient Persian as ‘the land of the eternal fire.’ Nowadays Zoroastrian traditions are still held in high esteem. One of the examples is Nowruz (Navruz, Novruz) - the holiday associated with Zoroastrianism, which is the main holiday of modern Azerbaijan. Fire worshippers from all over the world were always attracted by these areas reserving rich oil and gas deposits. There is a monument, the Ateshgahtemple, that has remained in the territory since those times. The monument’s name translates as ‘a fire site,’ which relates to ever-burning natural gas coming out from under the ground. In former times the peninsula had a great number of places like this one, which decreased considerably with the development of oil and gas industry.

After that we shall move to the village of Mehemmedli situated at the foot of the Yanar Dag Hill (the hill’s name translating as ‘the burning mountain’). Today the Yanar Dag Hill is the only place on the Apsheron Peninsula where one can see columns of burning gas.

Return to Baku. Overnight at the hotel.

The town of Sheki located in a picturesque mountain region featuring beautiful valleys, deep gorges, crystal clear springs and dense forests is considered one of the most ancient and popular settlements of Azerbaijan. In the old times Sheki was a silk production centre and an important point on the Great Silk Road. Now the town is a major craft centre where one can purchase jewels and engraved articles of local manufacture. The excursion to the town will begin from the Khan’s Summer Palace decorated with fine frescoes. Later this day we shall visit a shop, where we shall learn the secrets of the production of shebeke - windows with frames made of small wooden parts, assembled without the use of either glue or nails and filled with coloured panes. After that we shall go to another shop - that producing ‘Sheki pakhlava’ popular throughout Azerbaijan.

The next place we are going to is the Albanian Church in the village of Kish. According to one of the versions, this was the first Christian church in the whole of Transcaucasia. In addition, this is a place where scientists discovered remains of people strikingly different from those inhabiting the territory nowadays, the found skeletons being those of blond-haired blue-eyed tall people. Norwegian researcher Thor Heyerdahl visited the area and made a hypothesis that these people were the ancestors of the Vikings, who later migrated to the north. In 2003 the Norwegian Government financed the restoration of the church, which was initiated by Thor Heyerdahl.

Return to Sheki. Overnight at the hotel.

The Gobustan National Park lies 30 km south of Baku, connected with the latter via a high-quality road, which makes the park quite easy to reach. The monuments of Gobustan include rock paintings and archaeological sites among other interesting objects. The rock paintings are arranged quite compactly and number several thousand, their age ranging from 4 to 5 thousand years old. Prior to the excursion to Gobustan we shall visit an interactive museum, where we can learn about the nature of Gobustan using multimedia programmes and touch screens. Almost every room at the museum features an interactive panel, where one can learn about the room’s objects. The museum also has a stereo 3D projector to let us experience a virtual flight over Gobustan and its neighbourhood.

The most remarkable, however, is the site of the petroglyphs on a mountain slope 1.5 km from the museum. The collection consists of about 6,000 rock paintings made during a vast period of time, from the Mesolithic to the Middle Ages.

Another interesting feature about Gobustan is its desert landscapes contrasting with the classical Caucasian sceneries. Gobustan nearness to a large city makes its objects all the more attractive.

Overnight at the hotel.