In search of fire.

Blazes! That’s hot.

Post Velotreki and much-too-long-of-a-wait in a carpet shop, we met our friendly taxi driver for one more outing before our departure. This time we were absolutely assured that our driver knew the way… We were headed to the Fire Temple and Yanar Dag (Fire Mountain) in the surrounding area.

After a short but dreary (sorry, Baku countryside, but it’s true) drive, we arrived at the feet of Yanar Dag. Yanar Dag is a hill that shoots out flames. Really. It just keeps burning. The flames are fed by underground natural gas spread about 30 feet across the hillside.

It’s an interesting attraction and in hindsight made me crave hot chocolate. I wouldn’t mind a yanar dag at chilly outdoor events.

After warming ourselves with the flames, we headed back in the taxi to our main destination, the Fire Temple.

Pretty fiery, isn’t it?

Yeah… so our taxi driver just kept stopping his car for us to take photos of the salt piles, then we realized he was driving us back to Baku. Oops. Fire Temple FAIL!

We joined back up with Evan, packed our bags, ate a pizza dinner, detached from Evan, and arrived back at the Heyder Aliyev Airport. Once again, we were the only flight currently scheduled at the airport.

Thanks, AzerBAN-JAN!

xo, jill