Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape (Gobustan National Park)
Gobustan
The main draws to Gobustan National Park, officially Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape, are thousands of prehistoric rock engravings dating back 5,000–20,000 years. In addition to the carvings, the UNESCO World Heritage Site houses a rare "singing stone," a large collection of mud volcanoes, and a complex of public mud baths.
The park is a popular natural attraction in Azerbaijan—with many tour options. Comprehensive day trips from Baku usually include highlights of the Absheron Peninsula, such as the Bibi-Heybat Mosque and Baku Ateshgah, also called the Fire Temple of Baku. On these trips, you’ll see the park's rock engravings that depict people, animals, and rituals, visit the Gobustan Museum, and quickly visit mud volcanoes. The park museum also organizes inexpensive rock art excursions.
A museum holds nature and archaeology exhibits and a movie hall.
Admission tickets are discounted for students and Azerbaijani citizens.
Touching any of the rock art is prohibited.
The park is about 67 miles (120 kilometers) south of Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, along the coast of the Caspian Sea. The best way to reach the park on your own is to drive—it’s about a 1-hour journey along Highway Route E 119. You can also book a tour with round-trip transportation.
The park is open every day of the week, year-round. However, Azerbaijan is new to tourism, and public travel information can change quickly. Azerbaijan is a year-round destination. Early spring, when the Novruz festival celebrates the Persian New Year and the coming of spring, is a particularly nice time to visit.
It's estimated that about 300 of the world's 700 mud volcanoes are in the Gobustan area and the Caspian Sea. With occasional flame geysers and warm therapeutic mud, they’re popular among travelers—you can find some of the most well-known ones near the Gobustan Reserve at Dashgil. They're free to visit.
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