If you ever think about taking a 3:30 AM flight, I have three words for you (take your pick):
• You are crazy.
• Don't do it.
I know what I'm talking about. That's what we did at the end of twenty-two days of arduous travel along the Silk Road. We were crazy enough to book a flight from Ashgabat to Baku that left at 3:30 AM, and since it's an international flight, we had to be at the airport by at least 1:30 AM. The flight is only 1 hr. 35 min. long, so there's really no time to sleep, and of course, it's our policy to hit the ground running.
It was grueling.
But before I get to that part about hitting the ground running, here are a few facts about Azerbaijan, a country I knew ZERO about before this trip:
• In 1918 it became the first democratic state in the Muslim-oriented world, but it was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1920 as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.
• It declared its independence in August 1991, about four months before the official dissolution of the USSR, and was admitted into the United Nations a few months later.
• The capital city, Baku (population 2.4 million), has the best harbor on the Caspian Sea
• Around 97% of the population is Muslim, with a Shia majority, but most Azerbaijanis are non-practicing. The government is secular and religious freedom is guaranteed by the constitution.
• It is a small country, with only 33,400 square miles and a population just under 10 million. Here is a good visual of the size from a site call MapFight, with Azerbaijan in red and South Carolina (32,020 square miles) in blue: However, South Carolina has only half the population that Azerbaijan has:
• Some of the oldest civilizations in the world have ruins in this country.
• At the beginning of the 20th century, Azerbaijan was the world's leading producer of petroleum, accounting for more than half of world production.
• Its national animal is the Karabakh horse:
• One of the world's oldest religions, Zoroastrianism, was practiced in this region at least as early as 600 BC. Zoroastrians are sometimes (erroneously) called Fire Worshipers, but they actually believe that fire represents God's light or wisdom.
• The name Azerbaijan is Persian and means "protector of fire."
Okay, that should do. The last two points give some context for our first stop at Yanar Dag, a place that is best visited in the dark. Since we touched down at about 4:00 AM (Baku time), quickly met up with our private guide, and were on our way by about 4:30, it was still quite dark and Yanar Dag (located just outside Baku) was the perfect place to go.
Yanar Dag, which means "burning mountain" in Azerbaijani, is a barren sandstone hillside where a fire burns continuously and naturally. The fuel for the flame is natural gas, which seeps steadily through cracks in the rocks. A line of fire about 30 feet long has licked the earth continuously since a shepherd accidentally lit the the gas in the 1950s. There are other places in Azerbaijan where leaking gas feeds a constant flame, but this site is supposed to be the best.
• You are crazy.
• Don't do it.
I know what I'm talking about. That's what we did at the end of twenty-two days of arduous travel along the Silk Road. We were crazy enough to book a flight from Ashgabat to Baku that left at 3:30 AM, and since it's an international flight, we had to be at the airport by at least 1:30 AM. The flight is only 1 hr. 35 min. long, so there's really no time to sleep, and of course, it's our policy to hit the ground running.
It was grueling.
But before I get to that part about hitting the ground running, here are a few facts about Azerbaijan, a country I knew ZERO about before this trip:
• In 1918 it became the first democratic state in the Muslim-oriented world, but it was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1920 as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.
• It declared its independence in August 1991, about four months before the official dissolution of the USSR, and was admitted into the United Nations a few months later.
• The capital city, Baku (population 2.4 million), has the best harbor on the Caspian Sea
• Around 97% of the population is Muslim, with a Shia majority, but most Azerbaijanis are non-practicing. The government is secular and religious freedom is guaranteed by the constitution.
• It is a small country, with only 33,400 square miles and a population just under 10 million. Here is a good visual of the size from a site call MapFight, with Azerbaijan in red and South Carolina (32,020 square miles) in blue: However, South Carolina has only half the population that Azerbaijan has:
• Some of the oldest civilizations in the world have ruins in this country.
• At the beginning of the 20th century, Azerbaijan was the world's leading producer of petroleum, accounting for more than half of world production.
• Its national animal is the Karabakh horse:
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| Photo from CNN |
• One of the world's oldest religions, Zoroastrianism, was practiced in this region at least as early as 600 BC. Zoroastrians are sometimes (erroneously) called Fire Worshipers, but they actually believe that fire represents God's light or wisdom.
• The name Azerbaijan is Persian and means "protector of fire."
Okay, that should do. The last two points give some context for our first stop at Yanar Dag, a place that is best visited in the dark. Since we touched down at about 4:00 AM (Baku time), quickly met up with our private guide, and were on our way by about 4:30, it was still quite dark and Yanar Dag (located just outside Baku) was the perfect place to go.
Yanar Dag, which means "burning mountain" in Azerbaijani, is a barren sandstone hillside where a fire burns continuously and naturally. The fuel for the flame is natural gas, which seeps steadily through cracks in the rocks. A line of fire about 30 feet long has licked the earth continuously since a shepherd accidentally lit the the gas in the 1950s. There are other places in Azerbaijan where leaking gas feeds a constant flame, but this site is supposed to be the best.
The flames are VERY hot, and even appear blue in some places.
It was pretty dark when we were there so it was hard to see the neighborhood, but Yanar Dag appears to be situated at the end of a dry, windswept moor and behind a row of houses or businesses. Visitors can walk right up to the fire and warm their hands if they want to. I was definitely wishing I had a bag of marshmallows, some Hershey's chocolate bars, some graham crackers, and a roasting stick:
Yanar Dag tied in to a place we visited the next day: Ateshgah, or "The Fire Temple of Baku."
Zoroastrian worship is thought to have taken place at this site as far back as the time of Christ. The Zoroastrians attributed mystical significance to the ever-burning fire and came here to worship. Unfortunately, after the introduction of Islam in this area, the Zoroastrian temple was destroyed, and the practitioners of that faith moved south to India.
The site in its present state was constructed in the early 1700s by Indian merchants who were part of trading caravans.
In the center of the courtyard are two places where the "eternal flames" that brought so much attention to this place burn--except they burn fuel that is piped in rather than natural ever since the original fuel source burned out in 1969 because of a century of oil and gas exploitation in the region by the Soviets. Who knows how long these fires had been burning before that?
One fire burns on a sacrificial altar that was built in the 18th century:
The other flame is inside what seems to be the main attraction at this site, the "Central Altar," built in 1810:
There are some displays about what it was like to worship here when it was a pilgrimage site for Zoroastrians and to trade here when it was one of the stops along the Silk Road. Unfortunately, I was too tired to take notes and my brain was already exploding with travel information, so you'll just have to use your imagination in regards to these pictures:
I know a man who is a Zoroastrian who was very excited when I told him I had visited this spot. I need to get him to fill in some of the details for me!
3:30 a.m. flights are what you do when those are the only flights between two points available. Other groups flying out of Ashgabat to Turkey were also flying at 3:30 a.m. It does allow for a good full day.
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