Ateshgah

Ateshgah stands on the Absheron peninsula, where natural gas seeping through the rock has burned at the surface for centuries — the phenomenon that gave Azerbaijan its reputation as the land of fire long before oil derricks appeared.

The present pentagonal complex was built in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, largely by Indian merchants and ascetics travelling the trade route, and its cells carry inscriptions in Sanskrit, Punjabi and Persian. Zoroastrian, Hindu and Sikh traditions all left traces here.

The natural vent was exhausted by industrial gas extraction in the 1960s, and the flame is now fed by the city supply. A short drive away, the hillside of Yanar Dag still burns on its own, most impressively after dark.