We set off for our 40 mile drive south from Baku along the coast of the Caspian Sea to Gobustan: we were on our way to the Gobustan State Historical and Cultural Reserve.
The Gobustan State Reserve is very rich in archaeological monuments, but the main attraction for tourists is the Gobustan Cultural Landscape within the reserve, which covers an area of 1327 acres and has more than 6,000 rock carvings, which depict people, animals, battle-pieces, ritual dances, bullfights, boats with armed oarsmen, warriors with lances in their hands, camel caravans, pictures of sun and stars, dating back to between 5,000 and 20,000 years.
This is the very stylish museum and interest centre for the Gobustan State Reserve. It is full of exhibits and explanations about the rock carvings in particular and although i was impressed with it, the place did rather seem to me padded out with stuff very tangential to the actual purpose. So, for example, i could not understand why there seemed to be a lot of stuff about Stonehenge….? No pics i’m afraid, like most museums it does not lend itself….
Looking across from the museum to the general area of the petroglyphs [carvings] you can see what looks like a big pile of rocks, mainly created we were told as a result of hundreds and thousands of years of earthquake activity.
Here is a vid which hopefully gives you a clearer impression of the terrain….
Anyway, we got back on the bus to be driven over to the location and the first thing we came across was the Gaval Dash. This is a natural musical stone which we were told can only be found in Gobustan. It stands at the entrance to the reserve, and is one of four “singing stones” found there.
When this big, two-metre-long stone is struck with smaller rocks, it makes a hollow, ringing sound, supposedly resembling the sound of a tambourine or “gaval” in Azerbaijani language. This resonance is said to be created by microscopic holes inside the rock, which are believed to result from the dry climate and the effect of natural gas in the region.
Of course, we had to have a go ourselves and the effect was quite bizarre…. the sound was quite high pitched and it seem most incongruous that it came out of what appeared to be a solid chunk of limestone rock. Weird.
We then had a chuckle at this warning sign which we took to be about venomous snakes, but we didn’t see any, venomous or otherwise!
This is one of the most famous and easily made out petroglyphs but even so we found it easier to read up on the very helpful signs what was in the carving and what it was supposed to represent. So for the rest of our visit to Gobustan i am going to show you the carving and the sign side by side.
Here is the signage for the first carving…. You will see they reckon it dates back to the Mesolithic Era, i.e. between 8,000 and 2,700 years BC.
The view seems to be that the area was inhabited by early man who made these carvings and who used the rather jumbled rock formations as shelter from the weather [a bit warmer back then, apparently] and for defence against marauders. Of course we have no way of knowing what those rock formations looked liked several thousand years ago, especially given the earth quake activity in the meantime.
Hopefully you can make out some of the carvings on this next one and match them to the signage. I’m not optimistic because we found it difficult enough looking at the real thing!
Given the difficulty of seeing the carvings with any clarity, i’ve decided not to show any more, but will just give you some more general shots of the site which in itself was quite dramatic.
Maybe i have shown enough for you to want to visit Gobustan if you ever do get to Baku??
Here are some of the more general shots:
The image at the top left we could just about imagine being used as a sort of cave for shelter…
I’d never seen the Caspian Sea before, although i have flown over it a few times, so here’s a pic of the view over to it from Gobustan.
The other feature the curators seem to get very excited about were these holes in the rock…
There seems little doubt they were made by our ancestors thousands of years ago, but theories about why they were made seemed to vary considerably. The main idea was that they were used to store water when it rained, but given i believe limestone is porous i am not sure that would work. More fanciful theories included using them as a receptacle for blood in some sort of sacrificial ceremony, human or animal…..
After an hour or so we set off back to Baku: by now i had properly woken up and sitting on the right side of the bus to take pics of the Caspian Sea shore and related activities…..As you can imagine, given the amount of oil and natural gas these guys shift, there was huge evidence of exploration and extraction activies.
Not quite so obvious perhaps were the huge apartment blocks being constructed right on the edge of the Caspian Sea… I’m not sure these were up-market sea-view jobbies, but more likely cheap and cheerful housing for workers as close as possible to where the work needed to be done.
Could be wrong, of course….
….and i still haven’t figured out what this one is. I don’t believe it has a religious purpose, looks a bit like something out of Portmeirion….
As we came into Baku we saw the crude reality of drilling for oil with nodding donkeys and drilling rigs right in the city. Here is a vid:
…and the very next things we saw were the trophies and toys that oil money had been spent on:
The first pic you will recognise by now: the three Flame Towers and the very new Crescent Hotel. Then the Caspian Waterfront Mall, the Carpet Museum and finally the Supreme Court of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
I’m hoping you’ll like this one as much as i do…. It is the former Trump Tower building still empty five years after it was completed. It seems Donald got himself involve with some very bad people, not least the Iranian Revolutionary Guard!!! It has all been kept very quiet, but it has been impossible for him to move it forward and all the signs are that he has just written it off…..
With the benefit of hindsight, Donald might have been better off focusing on building posh and expensive apartment blocks – i hear $2 million a pop is not unusual and there are hundreds and hundreds around Baku….
Lunch time by now, so we visited a modern and very fancy looking Turkish restaurant in the centre of town. Food was good and they looked after us very nicely… Here is a pic of the bloke in the kitchen cooking the usual fresh bread.
Next up was a visit to the Heydar Aliyev Cultural Center: a breathtaking piece of modern architecture from the outside, but on the inside nothing more than a paean to the wonder of the Great Leader Heydar Aliyev. I managed one floor out of the three and then ambled off for a very welcome cup of coffee in this tea dominated country! Actually the whole building including the cafe was immensely stylish…. You will see I managed two pics from the interior, both of which are rather bizarre sculptures by George Marin the Mexican Sculptor.
I’ve also shown a pic of the Baku Conference Centre, another very stylish building next door to the Heydar Aliyev Cultural Center.
Actually i fibbed a bit: one thing i did enjoy were the displays of the three armoured limosines used by Heydar Aliyev: here are pics of two of them: I especially liked the 50s US looking vehicle on the right!
Our last visit of the tour was off to the Baku Carpet Museum . Agai, another remarkable piece of modern architecture, albeit about what to us might appear to be a prosaic topic. Not in this part of the world of course, where carpets have a very special significance at all levels of society.
As you have probably figured out for yourself the museum is designed to look like a rolled up carpet! Inside it is beautifully laid out and lit: i thought it was all fascinating! No internal pics again, i’m afraid…..
So, on to our Farewell Dinner: you get to know your fellow travellers pretty well on a gig like this given we eat together three times every day for two weeks!!! It was a jolly session, but pretty restrained in terms of alcohol, probably just as well given that many of us were having to catch a flight from Baku airport at 4:30 the next morning! Patti did her wonderful rapping routine to salute our Tour Leader: pretty ballsy i thought in a crowded restaurant but none of the other diners seemed in the least bit fazed and Dario was charmed by it all as you can see from the pic. The other pic is of the meet and greet lady at the entrance to the restaurant….. Happy Days!!!
Only one more post to come for you after this: I’ll report on my journey back to the UK and provide an Epilogue – a brief evaluation of the experience of a two week journey Across the Caucasus.
Tony's Geriatric Adventures 
It looks like you had an amazing trip overall! I really enjoyed your tour of the Caucasus and hope to follow in your steps one day! Cheers!
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Morning, Anna! Great to hear from you again, bit of a slog putting the blog together at the same as travelling on a super intensive trip!! Your comments make it worthwhile…. I hope you do get the Caucasus one way: gotta say Wild Frontiers did an excellent job and – as always – having a first class Tour Leader makes all the difference. All the best, Tony
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I missed your last few days of blogs because i was in Cambodia! Just for back yesterday so I’m back to “normal” life reading blogs etc. I dont know how you blogged while on tour… my Cambodia posts will probably take me a year! Haha. I appreciated your posts, I’m so fascinated by this region! Cheers, Anna
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