Rock carvings
Over six thousand.
Сёма Дядя — CC BY-SA 4.0 · John Deckinga — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Sefer azeri — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Natalia Senatorova — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Natalia Senatorova — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rəcəb Yaxşı — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Aleksander Dragnes from Oslo, Norway — CC BY 2.0 · Canmron — CC BY-SA 4.0
A historical and natural reserve south-west of Baku that protects more than six thousand rock carvings over 537 hectares, dating from five thousand to twenty thousand years ago. The Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape was inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2007. The carvings show scenes of prehistoric life: hunters and wild animals, group dances, battles, reed boats with oarsmen, warriors with lances, camel caravans, and symbols of the sun and stars. The Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl visited several times, fascinated by the boat carvings. Visitors start at the modern Petroglyph Museum, opened in 2011, which explains the site with interactive displays, then climb among giant boulders on marked paths to see the carvings where they were made. The hilltops look out over the plain and the Caspian, and the reserve has a stone that rings like a tambourine when struck. Tickets are about 10 AZN per visitor guides. The site is exposed and hot in summer, so bring a hat and water, and the paths are rocky, so wear comfortable shoes. It is usually combined with the nearby mud volcanoes on a day trip from Baku.
Over six thousand.
Interactive displays.
Rings when struck.
Gobustan reserve near the town of Gobustan, about seventy kilometres south-west of Baku
By car or on an organised tour from Baku, about an hour away; most visitors combine the carvings and the mud volcanoes in one day.