Worship The Fire!

At the end of the Metro line is a bus stop.

And at the end of the Bus Line there is a derelict train station and some oil derricks

And after a 10 minute walk down some disused tracks there is the Atesgah Fire Temple.

Azerbaijan has always been famous for it’s wealth of natural gas and oil. The stuff is literally seeping out of the ground and in places it has caught on fire, fires which could not be put out by any pre-20th Century technology, so they burned for Centuries.

But our ancestors knew how to funnel fire and at Atesgah some Zoroastrians built a Temple over some natural gas vents. With one perpetual fire in the middle of the Temple, and vents channelling flames to each of the corners it would have been truly impressive in years past.

Now the Temple is more a curiosity. The drawing down of the oil supplies over the years has reduced the pressure on the natural gas to such an extent that it no longer leaks at Atesgah so the flames are fuelled by piped in supplies now. The corner flames are only lit when dignitaries visit. I could persuade no-one that being Head of Year in a South East London comprehensive was dignified enough so we had to make do with the central fire and more mannequins.

The mannequins were in rooms around the edge of the Temple. They were demonstrating the trials of strength and faith that fire-worshipping pilgrims in eras gone by had endured. So mannequins in loincloths and turbans were shown on beds of nails, wrapped in heavy chains and generally looking in slack jawed awe at fire.

The thing which most struck me about this trip was the lack of investment away from the city centre. While Central Baku is tremendously flash with it's cash, here we were on the edge of the city visiting one of Azerbaijan's three top tourist draws. Yet there had been no signage, and the area around the Temple was very down at heel, derelict and ramshackle.