The national park and UNESCO site with petroglyphs

Baku is called the city of cats and cats are included in this building design - see three at the top

Caravanserais are an important element of The Silk Road

This caravanserai is now a restaurant and special event space

Playing a version of backgammon we'd never seen before

A Lada! Our guide said we'll see a lot more of them once we get into the countryside

The museum has about 4,300 miniature books. There's a Canadian section 🇨🇦

Mud volcanoes, petroglyphs and Old Town

September 9, 2025 in Azerbaijan ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

While yesterday was considered Day 1 of our group tour, it really got going today. And it was a hot one with temperatures reaching 32°.

The 11 of us boarded our mini bus and drove about an hour outside Baku to visit the mud volcanoes. There are about 800 mud volcanos in the world, 400 of which are in Azerbaijan. Fascinating! You can learn more about them here:

https://azerbaijan.travel/explore-mud-volcanoes…

We then drove to nearby Qobustan National Park and Museum which is the site of numerous petroglyphs and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Brad and I have seen petroglyphs before in Namibia and Australia, as well as Chile and Peru. It’s incredible how similar they are, despite being so geographically distant from each other. You can read more about them here:

https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1076/

We returned to Baku for lunch and then took a walking tour of the Old City and its cobblestone narrow streets, interesting architecture and numerous cats.

Once the tour ended, Brad and I decided to stay and roam around the area and have dinner there.

After so much activity, we wanted to get back to the hotel after dinner and relax.Read more