GOBUSTAN

Caves and rock outcroppings surround this village, whose name can be translated as "ravine land". The spurs of the Great Caucasus Range descend to the Caspian along the Djeirankechmez river. Settled since the 8th millennium BC, the area contains thousands of rock paintings spread over 100 km2 depicting hunting scenes, people, ships, constellations, animals, etc.

The oldest petroglyphs date from the 12th century BC. Later, the European invaders also left their marks: inscriptions left by Alexander the Great's cohorts in the 4th century BC and 2,000-year-old graffiti written by Trajan's Roman legionnaires!

The petroglyphs of Gobustan were discovered accidentally by quarry workers only in the 1930s. In addition to the rock carvings, traces of Mesolithic period occupation are to be seen, with numerous burial mounds and graves, the most interesting at Firuz, where eleven skeletons were found. One of the most interesting ancient monuments in Qobustan is an ancient musical instrument – Qavaldash. ( drum stone) There are two of these stones in Qobustan. One of them is located on the north-eastern slope of the Chinkirdaq mountain. The second one is a huge and flat piece of rock on the north-eastern slope of the Boyukdash mountain. Qavaldash doesn’t look any different from thousands of rocks surrounding it. But when you hit them with a small stone you can hear a metal sound close to the sound of drum. Hitting different spots of stone makes sounds of different tones. The secret of making Qavaldash play is in raising it over land. Azeri scientists found out about Qavaldash in 1947 from a talk of local shepherds. They in their turn knew about it since their childhood, from their fathers and grandfathers. The eastern side of the stone from getting hits took the shape of piano. When hitting the stone from one side to another the sound changes as it does with the keys of the piano. Qavaldash is found not only in Azerbaijan, but in some other countries of the world. For example: in Southern Vietnam, close to the village of Ndut Lyang Crack; in African country of Mali. The tribes that live in Qobustan, engraved their dancing on the stones located by Qavaldash-es, encouraging the youth to “yalli” dance ( national dance with elements of dancing in a ring). Qavaldash is one of Qobustan’s wonders. Even today we can play any melody we want on these stones.

The local museum adjacent to the site houses the ornaments, flints, shells, ceramics, beads and primitive tools that were found inside the caves - often objects of non Caspian origin, evidence of links with Europe and the Indian sub-continent. Based on the archeological finds and on content of the petroglyphs, recently it has be theorized that a connection exists between the ancient Azeris and the peoples of Scandinavia, which is not surprising at all, since some of the original habitants of the region, the Medes, were not a Turkic people, but an Indo-European people.

Besides being famous for the petroglyphs the Gobustan are also has some amazing landscape, particularly an area filled with mud volcanos, which provide a quasi-lunar horizon.
Based on the archeological finds and on content of the petroglyphs, recently it has be theorized that a connection exists between the ancient Azeris and the peoples of Scandinavia, which is not surprising at all, since some of the original habitants of the region, the Medes, were not a Turkic people, but an Indo-European people.