Old City, Ateshgah and Yanar Dag

This is the ideal route for one packed day in Baku if you want to see both the capital's main historic quarter and a genuinely otherworldly natural phenomenon that's been worshipped here for thousands of years. In the morning we walk through the Old City, and after lunch we head out to real eternal fire — first an ancient fire-worshippers' temple, then the Burning Mountain.

Icheri Sheher, or the Fortress, is Baku's main historic district, ringed by fortress walls and covering more than 20 hectares. It's not an open-air museum — it's a living neighbourhood, where ordinary Baku families still live alongside the tourists. In 1977 Icheri Sheher was declared a historical-architectural reserve, and in 2000 it became the first site from Azerbaijan on the UNESCO World Heritage list — I'll show you exactly why.

After walking the Old City's narrow streets, we'll take a lunch break — I'll point you to places in the area that are genuinely good without a tourist markup.

In the afternoon we head to the outskirts of Surakhani, to the Ateshgah fire temple. For centuries Zoroastrians, Hindus and Sikhs worshipped fire here: gas rose straight out of the ground and ignited on its own. The first temple on this site dates back to the 3rd century, and the current building was rebuilt in the 15th–16th centuries as a Hindu and Sikh shrine. The natural flame went out in 1902 as oil extraction changed the soil composition, but today gas is piped back in and the fires burn as before. The cells around the temple now house a museum with wax figures showing how the fire-worshippers lived here.

The last stop is Yanar Dag, the "Burning Mountain" — one of Azerbaijan's most recognisable natural symbols. A natural flame about ten metres wide, fed by gas escaping through a thin layer of sandstone, has burned here continuously for thousands of years. It's especially striking at dusk — if timing allows, I'll plan the route so we arrive there closer to evening.

The route takes about 7 hours, travelling in a comfortable car. The price includes the guide and transport; meals and entry tickets are paid separately. Message me on WhatsApp to arrange a date and start time.