Museum Tour (closed exposition) and the reserve (open part)

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Museum of Petroglyphs (Museum under the open sky)

Museum of petroglyphs - this is the name of Gobustan - a mountainous place in the southeast of the Greater Caucasus Range, located 65 km from Baku. It was here that the ancient sites of primitive people were found, who left behind a lot of rock carvings - petroglyphs. These primitive monuments of art reflect the culture, economy, worldview, customs and traditions of ancient people. Once upon a time, the sea lapped right at the foot of these mountains, but then receded, leaving characteristic relief traces on the polished boiling rocks. After accidentally, in the 30s of the 20th century, unusual drawings were discovered on the rocks, more than 6 thousand of them have been “discovered” (on 1000 rocks). Also found were ancient primitive dwellings - caves and parking lots, more than 100 thousand objects of material culture. Gobustan petroglyphs belong to different eras. They were made between the 10th and 18th millennium BC.

 

Trip to mud volcanoes

Azerbaijan ranks first in the world in terms of the number of mud volcanoes. There are about 350 out of 800 mud volcanoes in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Most of them are concentrated in the Gobustan region.

 

Active mud volcanoes of the Dashgil group

To the east of the Gobustan Museum are a group of active Dashgil volcanoes. You can visit and climb up close to the crater of mud volcanoes and watch the gurgling of liquid clay. A beautiful landscape, as if you are on the planet Mars (scientists have drawn an analogy and the surface in the Gobustan region is very similar to the surface of the planet Mars) and the constant mud gurgling creates a feeling of an unearthly surface.