Four Absheron Treasures: the Fire Worshippers' Cells and Today's Pilgrims

A private day, starting at 9:30 with pick-up anywhere in Baku and ending with drop-off at Fountain Square. The interactive museum at Gobustan uses touchscreens and 3D panoramas to set out how people lived here 5,000 to 20,000 years ago, with exhibits dating from roughly the fourth to the second millennium BC. Then the open-air reserve: more than 6,000 rock drawings and the caves, petroglyphs from several different eras, found by scientists in the 1930s. What they record is what those people believed and how they lived. The mud volcanoes come with the guide on what the mud is actually good for. Ateshgah, the fire temple, was used by Hindus and Zoroastrians, according to the Persian and Indian inscriptions on it; the first written mention of it is from the 7th century AD. The cells where the fire worshippers lived are open, and they hold what the excavations turned up: cookware, stone slabs with inscriptions, pieces of clothing. Yanar Dag is a natural gas flame that has burned on the hillside since ancient times. Pilgrims from Iran and India still come to it. The guides are accredited. Cancel at least 24 hours before departure for a full refund.