Sandwiched in the Caucasus, between the Caspian and Black Seas, Azerbaijan is a bit of a latecomer to global tourism. But catching up fast.

Unusual on multiple counts, four features and their unique mix set the country even further apart from the ordinary: Mud, petroglyphs, oil, and fire. Where else can one find such a cocktail! To add to its appeal, they come candy-wrapped in picturesque settings at a short distance from the capital Baku in the surrounding Absheron Peninsula.

Of the 700 mud volcanoes found around our planet, 40 percent lie in Azerbaijan. They bubble away on barren stretches courtesy of methane gas trapped under the earth’s crust. When the pressurized gas encounters groundwater, and together they find an opening in a fault line, they ooze out in the form of mud, cool to the touch.

Ranging from 1 to 700 metres high, and a few centimetres to a few kilometres wide, they function similarly to regular volcanoes. When they erupt, they can spew flames and mud from the bowels of the earth. Kinezadagh [397 metres high] and Turaghay [400 metres high] are the largest mud volcanoes in the country.

Azerbaijan is also among the oldest inhabited regions in the world, going back to the Stone Age. The Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape Reserve, a UNESCO-listed World Heritage Site, contains an exceptionally large collection of petroglyphs. Etched into rock with sharp stone tools, and with the advent of the Bronze and Iron Ages, with metal, the earliest of the lot is 40,000 years old.

Subjects range from dancing figures, shamans, boats with oarsmen, and battle and hunting scenes; the latter replete with bison, gazelles, horses, and goats. Some of these were ‘drawn’ even before the region’s ancient men and women shifted to farming and husbandry as a source of food.

Jumping forward a few millennia, there is an interesting anecdote that relays how early-19th Century farmers in Azerbaijan used to be disappointed when digging for groundwater and found oil gushing out instead. Though it had been used and exported for over 2,000 years, they had no inkling that in an industrialized world its value would one day surpass gold.

Under the country’s terrain and adjacent Caspian Sea are 7 billion barrels of oil reserves and 2.5 trillion cubic metres of proven natural gas reserves. The oil is often just a few hundred metres below. A mere crack on the earth’s surface is sufficient to ‘see’ the gas with the help of a lit matchstick.

Is it any wonder then that the world’s first industrial oil rig was raised in Azerbaijan, in 1846. Thirty-two years later, the Swedish Noble brothers decided to capitalise on this and set up Branobel in Baku. It was one of the largest oil companies controlling Russian oil output. Does the name sound familiar? It should. The Noble brothers included Alfred Noble, founder of the Noble Prize. Part of the wealth funding the prestigious prize came from Azerbaijan’s oil rigs in which he was a partner.

Local Azeris were quick to join in the treasure hunt leading to a flurry of diggings in the Absheron Peninsula where the reserves lay. In the 19th Century, whosoever owned the land which sputtered the black gold, also owned the riches it garnered, leading to overnight Azeri billionaires with a soft spot for European architecture. With the help of Polish architects, a mini-Europe was created around the medieval heart of Baku.

Unlike the initial tepid reception received by the greasy oil, the region’s methane gas reserves have long been revered. To the extent they even had a spiritual connotation.

Before the introduction of Islam in this part of the Caucasus, its inhabitants followed Zoroastrianism, a monotheistic fire-worshipping religion with Ahura Mazda as its supreme deity. By the 8th Century this ancient religion was wiped out in the region, except for a brief resurgence a thousand years later as a result of trade routes and the Zoroastrians in India.

Fascinated by the ‘eternal flames’ which licked out of the ground at the site of a 3rd Century Zoroastrian temple, the 17th Century traders decided to rebuild the temple and revive its sanctity. For the next two hundred years the Ateshgah [fire temple] attracted Zoroastrian pilgrims from far and wide, until it died a second death in the 19th Century.

Certain Zoroastrian traditions and customs still survive in Secular Muslim Azerbaijan and are followed with much gusto. One such is the Navroz or New Year festival, marking the beginning of spring. Another, is the third lease of life to the Ateshgah, wherein the sacred fire continues to burn, albeit this time with a gas pipe and the temple’s conversion into a museum.

Mud volcanoes, stone age drawings, oil rigs, and fire temples. What an eclectic unusual assortment. But who said Azerbaijan was just another country? 🙂

[Click on any image below to enlarge it and start a slideshow. Use the arrow keys to navigate through the set and read the captions.]

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[This blog post is part of a series from my solo independent travels to Azerbaijan in June, 2024. To read more posts in my Azerbaijan series, click here.]