Best of Azerbaijan-Baku Tour 3 Nights
Day 1 – Arrival and first acquaintance with Azerbaijan
Tour starts from meeting in Baku International Airport named of national leader Heydar Aliyev by local guide or company representative. Having collected all the luggage in the car, we go to place of stay. Passing along one of the main avenues, you can see a modern city with many illuminations and beautiful buildings. We arrive at the hotel where friendly staff will help for check-in to the room. Time to relax.
Day 2 - Exploring ancient Baku sights
Morning start with continental breakfast. The most amazing part of the capital is the upland park, from where the Apsheron Peninsula is observed from a bird's eye, forming the shape of an eagle's head. Enjoying the delightful view of the seaside boulevard nearby, you can see such complexes as the Crystal Hall, the venue for Eurovision2012, the Aquatic Sports Palace where the water events of the 1st European Olympic Games 2015 were held, Flag Square which highest in the world and much more. New symbols of the city Flame Towers will begin to glow like fire from down to up already at the first twilight.
Just like in any metropolis, Baku has its own cultural center. This is fountain square, but on the buildings you will see the
inscriptions of Nizami Ganjavi and Khagani streets.
Numerous tourist restaurants, hotels, boutiques and everyday bustle of capital give this place its beauty.
Here for the new year and other national holidays, a festival called "Cold Hands, Warm Hearts" is organized, where a
huge number of people gather every day.
Azerbaijan has many historical and cultural monuments that have also been included in the World Heritage UNESCO.
The old town is at the top of this list with structures like the Maiden Tower the highest museum complex in inner settlement
with a cult legend is considered and the largest Shirvanshahs' Palace.
Day 3 -Legacy of Zoroastrians and ancient people
At a distance of 70 kilometers from the center of Baku, there is a real historical and archaeological treasure of
the country, which is called Gobustan. The name "Gobustan" means "valley of ravines" or "land of ravines", since "Gobu"
means a ravine, a depression, and "stan" is a land or a country. Gobustan National Park is world famous for its rock
paintings. More than 40 thousand years BC, the ancient people, who were looking for shelter, stopped here, forming
tribes. This is not strange, because it was on the Caspian coast in this valley of ravines that they had everything to ensure
life. The first archaeological excavations in Gobustan began in 1939 by the Azerbaijani archaeologist Iskhak Jafarzade. He
studied the territory with a total area of 537 hectares, where in the mountains of Gobustan called Boyukdash,
Kichikdash, Jingyldag, Shikhgaya and Shongardag, he discovered 3500 rock paintings, sites of an ancient man, many
tombstones and even several mounds. In 1948, an inscription in Latin was found, which confirms the presence of one of
the Roman legions in the territory of Gobustan, and there is also an inscription in Persian dating back to the 14th
century. In total, about 6000 rock paintings were found in Gobustan, which archaeologists call "petroglyphs". In 2007
National Park was included in the UNESCO World Heritages. This is one of the most popular places for lovers of history
and archeology. The thousand-year history of Azerbaijan let us know that here at different times people worshiped
different religions.
Among them were religions like paganism, Judaism, Christianity as well as Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrianism is a religion
based on fire worship. Fire worship originated in the first millennium BC, and according to some sources, Zoroaster, who
was the main prophet of fire worship, came from Azerbaijan. Also, as in many mature religions, Zoroastrianism has the
concept of good and evil, and good always overcomes evil. The god of right deeds, goodness and justice was called
Ahura Mazda. And the god of anger, evil and bad deeds was called Ahriman. Naturally, there were many more followers
of Ahura Mazda than the god of evil, so good always defeats evil and the followers of good and faithful deeds will find
eternal life and happiness in the next world. The holy book of fire worshipers is the Avesta. There are several temples of
Zoroastrianism on the territory of Azerbaijan. The largest sanctuary is the temple of fire worshipers "Ateshgah" in the
village of Surakhani in Baku. The very name "Ateshgah" means a house of fire or a place of fire. The temple was built in
the 18th century, but it was in this place that there was already a place of belief in fire worship.
At the moment, the temple is used as a museum complex and is visited daily by thousands of tourists from all over the
world. 27 kilometers from the central streets of Baku in the settlement of Mehemmedi there is a limestone mountain on
the slope of which a hot gaseous medium flares up. This eternal flame includes Yanardag, which means fiery mountain.
Scientists have determined that the eternal fire is about 5000 years old and it was he who served as a source of
inspiration for fire worshipers in Azerbaijan. The fiery mountain was formed during a thunderstorm when lightning
struck the trees near the mountainside and the flames flared up due to a leak of fuel supply gas. Azerbaijan has a large
number of sources of gas in the form of a flame. Not for nothing is Azerbaijan called the “land of fires” Many travelers
reported about the eternal flame in their notes, books, and among them also the famous Italian Marco Polo. At the
moment, this place is used as a museum complex and its fame is growing day by day.
