Gobustan was 1 of 3 “Rock Art” sites among the 22 added in 2007 (with Twyfelfontein and Lopé). There are already many such sites on the list (see my reviews of Valcamonica, Tanum, Alta and the Matabo Hills for just some of them!). Whether Gobustan adds a great deal is open to some debate. In 2004 ICOMOS had decided that the nomination should be deferred to allow development of a research program. The revised 2007 evaluation concluded that the site met but 1 of the proposed criteria (but that a case had not been adequately made on 2 others) and recommended further referral for reasons of management plan and boundary “inadequacies” - yet UNESCO accepted the site on all 3 criteria! If you are in Baku you should certainly take the c65 kms trip south to see it but we personally, as non-experts, wouldn’t rate the visit that highly in comparison with the other rupestrian sites we have seen, either for what is on show or for the conditions under which you are shown it.

One problem with visiting sights which are then inscribed some years later is that one hasn’t always taken a photo as confirmation of the visit! And, when we visited in August 2000, we certainly hadn’t regarded this site as future “World Heritage” material “requiring” such a snap (There was no easily available “T List” information then). But that isn’t the main reason why the only “confirmation photo” I can provide is of the ticket for visiting “Qobustan”. Perhaps reflecting the fact that one of our expensive (foreigners?) tickets is numbered “00002” (I have lost the other which may indeed have been “00001”) and that there were no other visitors that morning, we were treated to the full weight of officialdom on our arrival with lectures on all the things one couldn’t do and close supervision throughout (the 2003 evaluation talks of 1000-2000 visitors pa – though it doesn’t seem credible that this could include Azeris). Yet both the 2004 and 2007 evaluations (rightly) criticise such practices as filling the engravings with toothpaste to assist photography – who was doing it and how! I feel that we, as foreigners, were receiving “special treatment”! I cannot remember whether the reason I took no photos was because we were told that it was forbidden or because it required some outrageous “foreigners” price ticket. Oh for the relaxed and friendly Scandinavian approach towards visitors at Tanum and Alta!

We only visited the main area described in the inscription documentation as “Boyukdash” situated on a cliff overlooking the Caspian with oil derricks as and connecting bridges as far as the eye could see. But, having seen the photos of the Gobustan inscriptions on the Web, I don’t believe that our officious guide took us to see a full range of the Palaeolithic and Bronze Age inscriptions. Indeed, my main memory of the visit was of the “singing stones” rather than of the rock art itself, recollection of which has largely been erased by the passage if time. These stones permit a range of musical notes to be “played” on them and were certainly used for this purpose in prehistoric times. The site has a little museum which I also remember more than the in-situ drawings.

Those interested in “travel trivia” might be interested to know of a fenced-in rock near to Gobustan (you can pass it on the way to/from from the main road to Baku) with what is the eastern-most Roman inscription ever found (it commemorates the 12th Legion which reached there in around 75AD during the reign of Emperor Domitian) – it is NOT part of the inscribed site (but I DO have a photo of it!).