We were picked up by our bus at the end of the city tour, now leaving the city and heading East further out on the Absheron peninsula.

Our first stop was at the Ateshgah Zoroastrian Fire Temple (Atəşgah Zərdüşt Od Məbədi). While the area itself has been a place of worship since the 7th century, the buildings, we were looking at here, only date back to the 17th and 18th century. While now “sold” as Zoroastrian temple, it indeed has been a place of worship also for Hindus and Sikhs. The fire originally was fed through natural gas seeping through, today however it is coming in via pipe.

From the fire temple we continued to Yanar Dag (Yanardağ), the site of the burning mountain. Natural gas is seeping through a porous sandstone layer, the gas got eventually lit (with many stories around how and when) and is burning ever since. While impressive in itself, it also tells loads about the vast amount of energy, that Azerbaijan is literally sitting on – – clearly they have reason, to consider themselves as the Land of Fire.