Head 60km down the coast and you can see this writ large at Gobustan, where some 6,000 petroglyphs dot the rocky hills, some as old as 15,000 BC. The city, of course, arrived much later.

The country is famous for its mud volcanoes, Gobustan National Park, known for its prehistoric petroglyphs, and the burning mountain of Yanar Dag, a unique natural phenomenon. Main roads are in ...