Baku is wonderful and you can spend days exploring it. But make sure you also carve out a full day to see the attractions outside the city. Azerbaijan has some natural wonders and historical sites that can’t be missed!

They’re easily accessible by car, but instead of driving, I recommend booking on an organized group tour. It’ll be more eco-friendly, convenient, and you’ll get a knowledgeable local guide. And it’s perfect for finding new friends, especially if you’re travelling solo!

My tour

I booked this tour on Viator, but you can hold on until you’re in Baku. There are many places in the Old Town that offer a similar programme, and they’ll very likely be much cheaper.

The tour has several pick-up points throughout the city centre – I joined outside the Maiden Tower just before 9am. Our minibus soon filled up, mostly with other solo travellers and pairs of friends. The group added up to about 15 people.

World’s First Oil Well

Our first stop was just south from the city. Since Azerbaijan owes its wealth to huge supplies of oil, it’s no surprise that the first ever oil well was drilled here – back in 1846.

Bibi-Heybat Mosque

The building that stands today is actually a 1990s reconstruction. The original 13th-century mosque was destroyed by the Bolsheviks in the 1930s. Inside, there is the tomb of Bibi-Heybet, one of the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad.

Man standing in front of a mosque with a mountain and grey sky in the background

We then stopped by a shop where the guide recommended to try a qutab – a traditional Azerbaijani snack, which was a pancake filled with green herbs.

It started to drizzle – not a good sign…

Gobustan Rock Art

Next, we went to Gobustan Rock Art, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a must-see when you’re in Azerbaijan. It’s an open-air museum, with many prehistoric carvings in rocks, dating back to anywhere between 5 and 20 thousand years ago! The petroglyphs mostly depict humans and animals, reflecting the changing hunting habits throughout the millennia.

It was thrilling to realize that these images were carved by someone thousands of years ago, and here we are still looking at them today. Unfortunately, they’re not eternal in their design, as time and elements slowly contribute to their degradation.

Our guide Rza told us that there are competing opinions on how to handle them. Some want to install extra protection; others demand that the site is left as it is, even if it means that the petroglyphs eventually fade away…

Heydar Mosque

We were meant to see mud volcanoes next, but the drizzle had turned into rain at that point, and for safety reasons, we decided to skip it. It felt like a sensible thing to do, but the disappointment was there.

As a replacement, our guide took us to the Heydar Mosque in the north of Baku. It opened in 2014 and holds the record as the largest mosque in the whole of the Caucasus.

For lunch, we went to Xaniman, which had authentic local food and Azerbaijani folk decor. I liked that Rza was considerate of the vegetarians (which turned out to be quite a lot of us!).

Yanar Dag

All the gas concentrated beneath Azerbaijan manifests in bursts of fire when it leaks to the surface and comes in contact with oxygen. The best example is Yanar Dag (also spelled Yanardağ, meaning “burning mountain”), located north from Baku. The flames haven’t stopped for thousands of years, and can’t be extinguished neither by nature nor humans. Today, this phenomenon contributes to Azerbaijan’s nickname “the Land of Fire”.

Before your expectations rise too high, I need to clarify a couple of things. Not the whole mountain is on fire – the flames are only at the ground level, sort of half-circling it. And it’s not even a mountain per se, but rather a hillside.

That being said, it makes for a spectacular scene and is hypnotic to look at. It was by far my favourite attraction on this tour, and I wished we had stayed there longer. I didn’t have enough time to check out the museum thoroughly.

Ateshgah Fire Temple

Religious landscape of Azerbaijan has changed over the centuries. Although not practised anymore, Zoroastrianism flourished there from the first century BCE. A reminder of that is the Ateshgah temple, located some 14 km east from central Baku. Commonly referred to as Fire Temple, its name actually means “home of fire” in Persian.

The natural flames once worshipped here went out in 1969 due to extensive exploitation in the area. Nowadays, for the full visual effect, the fire is kept alive with gas pipes, most prominently on the altar in the centre of the courtyard. To learn about the lives and traditions of Zoroastrians, walk along the surrounding wall and check out the displays inside the cells.

Final thoughts

We were running over an hour behind the schedule (the overlong lunch held us back) and it was getting dark when we reached the city. So, instead of making the final stop outside the Heydar Aliyev Centre, we only… drove past it. As much as I like group tours, they follow a rigid schedule, and when things don’t go to the plan, not much is within your control.

All in all, I was happy with the tour, and even the omission of mud volcanoes didn’t spoil my mood. At that point, I already knew I want to come back to Baku one day, and hopefully I’ll get to see them next time.