The hook
A stony semi-desert south of Baku carved with thousands of prehistoric rock drawings, next to a field of cold mud volcanoes that gurgle and belch grey slurry, a landscape more like another planet than a country.
01Why it's worth it
Gobustan pairs deep antiquity with pure geological weirdness. On its rocky hillsides, people carved thousands of petroglyphs over many millennia, hunting scenes, dancing figures, reed boats, and animals, one of the great concentrations of ancient rock art anywhere and a window into prehistoric life on the Caspian. A short, rough drive away lies a very different spectacle: a cluster of mud volcanoes, low grey cones oozing and bubbling cold mud from deep underground, part of an unusually dense concentration of these strange features found in and around Azerbaijan. Squelching among the burping mounds, with the drab flats stretching to the sea, feels genuinely otherworldly. Together the ancient art and the alien mudscape make a quirky, memorable half-day from Baku, and a taste of why Azerbaijan calls itself the land of fire and strange earth.
02How to experience it
See the Gobustan petroglyphs and museum first, then arrange the short off-road trip to the mud volcanoes, usually by hired 4x4 or with a tour, as the track is rough. Watch your footing around the wet cones. It is an easy half-day excursion from Baku.