Homeward Bound

Leaving Baku back to Newark. I will be at work tomorrow. It was an excellent trip.

Mosque and More Gobustan

This mosque is near the fire worshippers temple. The niche points toward Mecca. It was paid for by an oil baron who is in a beautiful tomb in the front of the mosque.



More Gobustan pictures. One of the most fascinating etchings is from a Roman soldier nearly 2,000 years ago. No pics of that one though.

I was also able to play a percussion stone, an ancient instrument which is just a rock that makes different sounds when hit with another rock. Its more interesting than it sounds: SWING LOW SWEET CHARIOT *BAM!* *BAM!* *BAM!* COMING FOR TO CARRY ME HOME! *BAM!* *BAM!* *BAM!*

Viking style boat etching. Archeologist Thor Heyerdahl, who has studied these etchings, speculates that people in this area migrated north to Scandinavia. That would make these original Azeris the first Vikings and the original discoverers of America. Not sure how sound that theory is but interesting to consider.



Unfortunately several days of rain made some back roads impossible to drive on even in a Jeep so no luck seeing the mud volcanoes.