Gobustan's 100,000 Finds, the Yalli Petroglyphs and Ateshgah's Five Sides

A full day from your hotel in Baku, starting around 9 a.m. at the Double Gates of the Old City. The indoor museum at Gobustan is the part people underestimate. Reopened in 2011 after a full renovation, it holds over 100,000 archaeological finds. The petroglyphs at the entrance echo the Yalli, the traditional Azerbaijani dance. Inside, touchscreens in several languages run through Palaeolithic stone tools and animated sequences of how the country and its people changed. The open-air reserve follows: more than 6,000 petroglyphs, some 40,000 years old, along with caves, settlement remains and burials, from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Middle Ages. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The mud volcanoes depend on the weather. Azerbaijan holds 350 of the 800 known worldwide, most of them around Gobustan, and locals call them Yanardagh, gaynacha and bozdag. The road out is bad, so a special taxi, a Soviet Lada SUV, does that stretch; the fee is in the price. Lunch is at a traditional restaurant and is not included. Ateshgah, in Surakhani, is five-sided, with fortress walls, an arched entrance and an altar in the middle of the courtyard where the fire worshippers gathered. Atash means fire in Persian. Built in the 17th and 18th centuries, it drew pilgrims until the late 1800s and served Zoroastrians, Hindus and Sikhs. Yanar Dag closes the day, 23 km from the Old Town, its flames fed by gas leaking through the rock. Cancel at least 24 hours before departure for a full refund.