Gobustan is a fragment of the Stone Age in Azerbaijan

Gobustan tour is one of the most popular routes of Azerbaijan Travel International.

Gobustan Desert  is situated on the south of the Absheron Peninsula. The place is not quite suitable for settlements of modern people, however, it is known all over the world as a settlement of prehistoric people. Moreover, it is the largest settlement in the world that has survived: an entire village of our primitive ancestors has remained untouched by time to this day.

Based on the statements of historians, archaeologists, and ethnographers, about 20,000 years ago, several generations of the first homo sapiens, Cro-Magnons, existed on the slope of the Boyuk-dash mountain. These people have left behind a rich legacy of echoes of their existence, which is represented primarily by rock art.

The rock paintings of Gobustan thoroughly accurately convey information about the life of prehistoric people. Due to their multiplicity and displayed chronological sequence, an attentive modern researcher can imagine the everyday life of an ancient Cro-Magnon, and his beliefs, feelings, and his mental evolution.

As always, the desire to survive was the main motivating factor of human development. The meaning of life was and still is in the improvement and simplification of the conditions of its existence. In rock art, one can trace the formation of the embryos of exact and natural sciences, the development of the aesthetic sense of man, the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture.

The primitive images of the first generations are replaced by geometric precision of the later drawings. Images of everyday features of grandchildren differ from what their grandfathers drew and show primitive progress both in intelligence and in its consequence – everyday life. In general, the heritage of Gobustan reflects the main quality of creature that survived and became the dominant form of life on the planet. The quality that, if it does not move forward in its progress, is doomed to degradation is the quality of Sapiens, the ability to discuss, intelligence. Intelligence helped people to realize themselves in the Stone Age and helped to go further in the next stages of society development.

The creation of sound, hardy means of transportation like a cart or a multi-oared boat, together with climate change in the harsh side, served as the reason and conditions for resettlement. Cro-Magnons left Gobustan, simultaneously leaving the Stone Age. Together with their new technologies, they settled in the surrounding area, and according to the theory of Thor Heirdall, they also reached the Baltic, where they became the progenitors of modern Scandinavian peoples.

Now, the site of the prehistoric man in Gobustan is protected by Azerbaijan Government and the international organization UNESCO. Historically rich places of mystical natural beauty are a protected area and the cultural heritage of all mankind.

Tags: Absheron Peninsula , Gobustan Desert , UNESCO , Prehistoric people , Stone age , Thor Heirdall , Scandinavian peoples