Ateshgah Fire Temple and Yanar Dag

Ateshgah Of Baku, A Pentagonal Caravanserai Temple Of The 17th 18th Centuries Built Around A Natural Gas Flame, Used By Hindu, Sikh And Zoroastrian Pilgrims. Yanar Dag Is A Natural Gas Fire That Burns Continuously On A Hillside, Giving Azerbaijan Its Name, The Land Of Fire. · Surakhani, Baku

Azerbaijan calls itself the Land of Fire (Odlar Yurdu), and these are the two places where the slogan has something real behind it. The Ateshgah at Surakhani is a pentagonal stone complex of the 17th and 18th centuries, with a small altar in the courtyard and monks' cells around it, built by Hindu merchants of the Silk Road around a spot where gas once seeped from the ground and burned. Today piped gas probably keeps the flame lit, which is worth knowing. Yanar Dag, the Burning Mountain, is a hillside north of Baku where natural gas escapes through the rock and burns in a low wall of flame, by legend since a shepherd dropped a cigarette in the 1950s. Be honest with yourself: these are two SMALL sites, about an hour each, and together they make a half-day from Baku. They are worth it for the history at the first and the atmosphere after dark at the second, and not as a full-day trip on their own. Pair them with Baku Old City and Gobustan, and do not expect more than they are.

Fire temple at Surakhani on the Absheron Peninsula about 15 km east of central Baku, with the burning hillside of Yanar Dag about 25 km north on the same peninsula, Surakhani, Baku, Azerbaijan

The Ateshgah is usually open daily from morning to early evening, with a small ticket and a museum in the cells; the courtyard is quiet on weekday mornings and crowded when tour buses arrive around midday. Yanar Dag is open into the evening, and the flames show best after dark, when the ticket is also small. Neither site is free in the official sense, though you can look at the Yanar Dag fire from the road. Hours shift by season and holiday, so confirm locally.

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