Fire Mountain, Fire Temple, Petroglyphs and Mud Volcanos

The Fire Temple. With the fire that it is constantly burning. 24/7/365. 24/7/366 leap years.

A day of tourist joy.

Today I had a tour guide drive me around to the top four must-see tourist destinations in the Baku environs. There is more to Baku than what is in Baku.

First stop: Fire Mountain.

Fire Mountain is a mountain -- probably more of a hill, actually -- that is literally on fire. From within. Baku is a mass of land floating on a sea of oil and gas. And sometimes the perpetually-seeping natural gas causes mountains to burn from within.

Here is a tourist warming himself next to the flames of Fire Mountain.

This is probably a tourist attraction that gains a massive amount of popularity when the whether turns colder. It is hot next to the fire. I would say it's like a bonfire, but it is a bonfire. It's not "like." It "is."

Hashtag YANARDAG! That's the translation of Fire Mountain into the Azerbaijani.

Speaking of fire ...

Atashgah!

This is the Fire Temple or, specifically, the Atashgah Zoroastrian Fire Temple.

It's got a temple, Zoroastrian of course, and fire. What else do you need to make a memorable tourist attraction?

At the center of it all is a small stone temple with a -- not a plot twist at all here -- a perpetually-burning methane-fueled fire.

Here is a tourist enjoying his tourism at the Fire Temple.

The Fire Temple site originally was developed by the Zoroastrians in the latter part of the B.C. era. After the practice of the Zoroastrian faith went into severe decline after the Arab/Islam conquest of the territory of modern-day Azerbaijan in the early 600's, the area was taken over by Hindu transplants into the area. The Moslems of the day were cool with the Hindus, according to the displays in the stone rooms surrounding the Fire Temple, because Hinduism was not a proselytizing religion.

But there is more than one perpetual fire in the complex.

At one point, when the oil and gas industry was developing in Azerbaijan, the temple area became a drilling site, as depicted in this old photo.

Yes, an area with multiple naturally-fed perpetual fires was sitting atop a field of oil and natural gas. Who knew?

But, as you can see, the oil derricks are now gone.

One of the few places around Baku where the oil derricks have been, how you say, "extracted."

One last look at the tourist warming himself by the fire of the Fire Temple.

All this tourism fun for a mere 9 manat, if you are foreigner, and only 2 manat if you are local. Nine manat is only a little more than five bucks. That is beyond a bargain.

Incidentally, if you are keeping score, and I am, the Atashgah Zoroastrian Fire Temple is officially the farthest east I have traveled in my life. Yes, I have traveled to China and Korea and Thailand, which, culturally, are considered the "east." But I traveled west to get there. I traveled to Azerbaijan by traveling eastward. And this is farthest east I will get in this trip.

Next stop: Qobustan!  Qobustan is a long drive westward from the Fire Temple, through the City of Baku, then southwestward.

Where they have a rock that you can play and it sounds like a Jamaican steel drum. How cool be that?

One does not visit Qobustan for the musical rock. One visits Qobustan for the ancient petroglyphs.

Sometimes the petroglyphs require some combination of a keen eye and a vivid imagination to see:

But some are more obvious:

I see a cow!

Need a closer:

And here, I see a horsie!:

Walking through the rocks of Qobustan is quite entertaining:

This is snake country:

So stay on the well-trod path, please.

So after navigating the walking loop -- and encountering no snakes because, like the good guided-tour tourist I am, I stuck to the well-trod walking path -- it was time for the next stop in ancient Qobustan.

There is a museum complex on the premises, although the walk through the petroglyph-saturated rock formations is the entertaining reason to visit.

The museum had a "recreation" of an ancient village on site:

But the museum itself was sleek and modern:

The people of Azerbijan consider Qobustan to be hugely important.

It really was the start of civilization in the area of what is now Azerbaijan.

And while we are in the neighborhood, let's visit the Mud Volcanos!

You here the term "mud volcano" and I know what you're thinking: a giant mountain the size of Mount Fuji that, instead of lava, is constantly spewing a river of mud. And you'd be wrong.

This is a mud volcano:

A little hole in the ground that is constantly gurgling with percolating mud.

It's cool. But it's not the Kilauea of Mud.

That one might be shaped like a mountain, but it's only a foot or so in height. But it is loud with the gurgling noise. It sort of sounds like stomach distress.

I've already recovered from my own travel-related, exhaustion-fueled, jetlag-induced stomach distress, thankfully.

This is a particularly large gurgling mud pool:

And this one was particularly photogenic:

Stay on the boardwalk since the crust is thin and you don't want to fall into a hot cauldron of mud. It would be messy. And scalding hot.

One last look at the mud volcano walking route:

The mud volcano complex -- by the way the most expensive of the day's tourist stops at 15 manat for foreigners (nine bucks) and 4 manat for locals -- has a souvenir shop (of course). But here, you can buy original works of art hand-painted with ... petroleum!

I don't think you can get that even in Texas. They even sold larger ceramic mugs hand-painted with petroleum, showing romantic scenes of oil derricks and oil wells. I passed because they were not "dishwasher safe" and, besides, much as I love petroleum I did not think it would enhance the flavor of my morning coffee. I did buy a hand-painted refrigerator magnet hand-painted with ... with what? Petroleum!

And to end the day of tourism, my guide took me to a local fish restaurant.

Baliq Evi is the name of the restaurant. It is located right along the shore of the Caspian Sea.

It even has beach access!

My guide recommended this restaurant very highly, both because of the location and the quality of fish. And my guide is the restaurant manager of my hotel, so he knows food.

I had a local beer.

Xirdalan. It was you basic pilsner style. Yes. Azerbaijan is an Islamic country with a local beer and plenty of local wines and brandies.

We tried the dorado, a.k.a. mahi-mahi.

And the trout, caught in local rivers, which I forgot to photograph until only fragments remained.

A delicious way to end the day.

Walking the Alanui Aupuni

The King's Highway. From back when Hawaii had kings.,

Lava rock as far as the eye can see.

I am staying at the Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort & Spa (pictured above).  It is much much lower in key than the hyperactive resort on Oahu.  It's almost like All-America suburbia:

If All-America had giant fields of lava rock.

The fact that there is sharp, black lava rock everywhere here on the west side of the Big Island is what makes this place interesting.  It's like no place else I've visited in that regard.  Except, maybe, Iceland.  A warm, sunny tropical Iceland.  Which, then, whatever it might be, would not ICEland.

Time to walk the Alanui Aupuni.

This is a day where the agenda has but one line item:  Be lazy.  Actually, it has two line items.  The second is an evening luau, but that's for later in the day.  So, for the earlier part of the day, other than eating these delicious deep-fried doughballs from the Island Gourmet Markets of the Queen's Marketplace -- I had two -- one coconut, one mango -- the coconut was very good, but the mango was exceptional -- even by the standards that is the deliciousness of fried dough -- I wanted to walk the trail through the lava rocks.

The trail has a name.  It's the Alanui Aupuni, a groomed trail through the lava rock dating back to the mid-19th Century -- pre-statehood -- pre-U.S. territorial status -- from back when Hawaii was ruled by a king.

The above is the Abrader Quarry, from which sharp cutting stones were mined.

Lots and lots of lava rock.

Eventually, on this trail, you come to a crossroads.  Continue in the southerly direction and you end who knows where?  The airport 20 some miles south?  Make a right turn and head west toward the ocean and you come upon a shrine:

Yes, that is the shrine.  It is the Ke Ahu A Lono.  Translation:  the cairn made by Lono.  It is a "shrine" that marks the boundary point between the land of two different tribes.  But it is a shrine that commemorates what amounts to the rehiring of a prime minister who was wrongfully terminated because the king listened to jealous courtiers.  Happens all the time.

This goes back to the 1600's.

Having reached the southern boundary of the people who lived on the land in the vicinity of the Waikoloa Resort & Spa, I headed back north.  In search of petroglyphs.

This is the petroglyph area.  It's sandwiched in between two sections of golf course.  And it's not even historic sections of the golf course.

Can we be honest, here?  These were not particularly impressive petroglyphs.  In part, this is because I was not sure if I was looking at petroglyphs.

Up in Valley of Fire northeast of Las Vegas, the petroglyphs pop out at you.  They are impressive.  These?  I think the petroglyphs here are nothing more than carved lines in the lava rock denoting who knows what.

But I didn't really notice them.

It's time to adjourn this meeting on the Alanui Aupuni and reconvene at the hotel pool for an afternoon of R&R.