Have you ever heard about the Door to Hell? It’s this mysterious crater in the middle of the desert in Turkmenistan, which Soviet geologists set on fire in 1971 to prevent the spread of methane gas, and it has never since stopped burning. Well, this might be the most famous example, but Turkmenistan is not alone in having weird natural gas phenomenons. Azerbaijan has one of its own, and it’s even more mysterious and marvellous.
On my last evening in Azerbaijan, after spending the day at Gobustan National Park, I had met two awesome new friends at the hostel, Xiting from China and Michael from Switzerland. I asked them if they wanted to go with me to see this amazing burning mountain, and while they weren’t too convinced of the potential of the destination, they agreed to go with me and it turned out to be quite the trip!
Despite only being 22 kilometers from the center of Baku, our destination for the evening took nearly two hours to get to! First, we had to walk to the Icarisahar metro station, which took us about 20 minutes as we got a bit lost. Then we had to catch the metro to Koroglu on the outskirts of the city, and from there catch a bus to the burning mountain. The bus was SO PACKED! I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything like it (okay, apart from the metros in Tehran…). I was literally stuck between four women and we were all falling on top of each other every time the driver turned a corner. I don’t know how long the ride was, but it felt like an hour before we were finally able to get off and away from claustrophobia.
Thankfully, our destination was worth every moment of discomfort we experienced on that bus!
We were at the Yanar Dag (“Burning Mountain”), a natural gas fire that blazes continuously on a mountainside on the Absheron Peninsula. The flames at Yanar Dag jet 10 metres into the air and they burn steadily, as they are a result of a steady leak of hydrocarbon gases emanating from the subsurface below a thin layer of sandstone.
No one really knows for sure how the natural gas fire started. Some claim that it was accidentally lit by a shepherd in the middle of the 20th century, while the locals that we met there claim that it started over 1000 years ago.
It remains a mystery how and why it actually started and why it’s still burning strong so many years later.
Thankfully, Xiting and Michael thought it was just as spectacular an experience as I did, and we actually ended up staying there for a few hours just chatting away and heating ourselves near the fire in zero degrees weather.
At that point, we were all three wishing that we’d brought some marshmallows and games with us, so we could entertain ourselves all evening.
Eventually, we had to go back to the hostel as it was getting late, but we weren’t expecting busses to still be running at that time, so we asked a taxi driver who came along with two Russian tourists to see the burning mountain, if he would call for a taxi for us. Using the proper taxi company, it only cost us 10 manat to get to the city center!! Man, how I’ve been ripped off before on this trip, haha!
Yanar Dag is a very special place, and although the phenomenon with everlasting fire is found sporadically throughout the world, only Azerbaijan has something quite like a burning mountain, where the fire is said to have started over 1000 years ago and no one knows how it actually started and why it’s still burning. Maybe this is the real door to hell? In that case, hell was quite pleasant to the three of us that evening!
How to reach Yanar Dag from Baku
- Go to Icarisahar metro station and catch a metro to Koroglu station.
- Catch bus 217 from there and ask the driver to let you know when you get to Yanar Dag.
- On the way back to Baku, you can either reverse the above itinerary, or catch a taxi. A taxi from a proper company (get someone to call, that is) will cost about 10 manat, while one from the street would probably charge double or even more.
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