This Gobustan and Shirvan National Park tour is our combined option for travellers who want both in one day.

Two of the most striking landscapes south of Baku sit barely forty minutes apart, and this Gobustan and Shirvan tour puts both into a single day: the 40,000-year-old rock carvings and bubbling mud fields of Gobustan in the morning, then a 4x4 gazelle safari across the semi-desert of Shirvan National Park in the afternoon.

Morning: Gobustan petroglyphs and mud volcanoes

We begin at the UNESCO-listed Gobustan reserve, where thousands of carvings — hunters, dancers, boats, animals — were cut into the rock by the people who lived on this coast for tens of thousands of years. The modern museum sets the scene before we walk the open-air site. Afterwards we leave the paved road for the mud volcano field on the plateau above the Caspian, where cold grey mud wells up and spills over in slow, strange bursts.

Afternoon: gazelle safari in Shirvan National Park

An hour further south, the landscape opens into flat semi-desert. At the park gate we transfer into rugged 4x4 safari vehicles and drive out across the plains to find the goitered gazelles that Shirvan is famous for — often in herds of dozens, moving fast across the flats. Binoculars, a telescope and an illustrated animal catalogue come with the tour. We finish at the central lake, where flamingos and migratory waterfowl gather from autumn through spring, over a glass of Azerbaijani tea by the shore.

Highlights

  • Two headline sights south of Baku in one private day, with round-trip transport
  • UNESCO-listed Gobustan petroglyphs and the interactive site museum
  • The mud volcano field on the plateau above the Caspian
  • A 4x4 safari across Shirvan's open semi-desert in search of wild gazelles
  • Flamingos and waterfowl at the park lake, in season
  • Binoculars, telescope and animal catalogue provided in the park
  • Hotel pickup and drop-off in Baku with a private guide

Is this the right trip for you?

This is a long, full day and it covers a lot of ground — it suits travellers who have limited time in Baku and want both the archaeology and the wildlife rather than choosing between them. If you would rather take one of them slowly, we also run them separately as the Gobustan tour (about five hours, and the cheaper option) and the Shirvan National Park tour (a full day built entirely around the safari). Gazelles are present year-round; the flamingos are seasonal, roughly autumn to spring.

Like travelling off the asphalt? See all our Azerbaijan jeep tours — 4x4 adventures with local drivers.