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Going Baku in timeJust an hour from the glittering cityscape of Azerbaijan’s capital lies a wealth of

prehistoric petroglyphic wonders. By Farida Zeynalova

out there

“Could I be related to him?” I ask Cavanshir, the park-keeper, as I skim my fingertips over the centuries-old carving of a dancing man. Cavanshir smiles and keeps walking, only turning back to warn me of the enormous lizard perched on top of the path. I defy my herpetophobia and trudge on.

I’m in the UNESCO-stamped Gobustan National Park, just an hour away from Baku, the city where I was born and spent the first decade of my life. Gobustan, meaning ‘ravine land’ in Azeri, is a rocky, arid expanse home to a freakish collection of primitive rock art, etched some 40,000 years ago. The 6,000 or so carvings adorn the walls and boulders of this parched stretch of land, and I’m told that they were attempts to chronicle human development between the Upper Palaeolithic period and the Middle Ages. The collection was discovered during a prospecting trip in 1930, and Gobustan's historical worth beyond land for a quarry quickly became apparent.

“This was their version of Facebook,” Cavanshir jokes, using his guidebook to deter the fly incessantly circling his head. “I think they wanted to show the future how they hunted and had fun.”

I get closer to the wall and spot a party of boogying stick men, a headless pregnant woman and a rampant goat. I crook my neck into one of the nooks and see a clear outline of a lonesome horse. My ancestors sure were oddballs.

The air is heavy with mysticism here, and we’re the only tourists around. As Azerbaijanis, you’d think we’d know better than to head to the desert in 108F torrid heat, but I was feeling ashamed that I hadn’t yet discovered such a wondrous part of my motherland. I look to my right, and with dust in my eyes, I can just about see the endless oil rigs and half-finished buildings that line the shores of the Caspian Sea. The famous mud volcanoes are just around the corner, but we’re not really dressed for muddy adventures.

“Aaaaaaaaaaa,” I screech. “Kartankala!” The lizard, a harrowing memory of my childhood in the sticks of post-Soviet Baku, is back. I make a run for it and head towards the newly built museum in the distance, where we find artifacts including carving tools, unsettling taxidermy and digital illustrations of the extraordinary lives of those who lived here millennia ago.

Before coming here, I'd heard rumours about a Norwegian ethnographer who fell in love with Baku. It turns out that Thor Heyerdahl, who visited Baku numerous times before his death in 2002, was convinced that Gobustan was the gateway for the mass migration of people to Scandinavia. He became fascinated by the similarity of the long boats scraped on the rocks to those in his native Norway, but his theory remains unsupported. Regardless, this dusty and reptile-ridden expanse has been designated by UNESCO as a ‘universal wonder’ — not bad for somewhere that was almost destroyed to make way for a soulless quarry.

Essentials

Where: The former Soviet republic borders Russia, the Caspian Sea, Iran, Georgia, Armenia and Turkey.When: Summers are hot and humid, and fall is warm and wet. Winters can be cold and windy, and spring tends to be fairly unpredictable.How: Azerbaijan Airlines offers direct flights from New York to Baku.azerbaijan.travel

Departures

ASTAnetwork | Winter 2017/18 | 119