Stone Age rock art and bubbling mud volcanoes
Gobustan National Park, an hour south of Baku, protects a rocky landscape of boulders and caves covered with more than 6,000 carvings of hunters, boats, animals and dancers, some dating back many thousands of years. A good museum explains the finds. Nearby, a strange grey plateau is dotted with mud volcanoes that burp and gurgle cold mud. Combine the trip with the fire temple of Ateshgah and Yanar Dag, a hillside where natural gas has burned for decades on the Absheron peninsula.