Gobustan, a part of the rich heritage of the rock art of Azerbaijan and the world, was visited by over 48,000 tourists this year.

Roughly 48,219 people visited the Gobustan State Historical-Artistic Reserve, a home to the world’s most important petroglyphs – stone and iron-age figures carved thousands of years ago, in January- June 2017.

“25,663 of them were foreign tourists,” said Reserve worker Rahman Abdullayev. The Reserve mainly welcomed tourists from Russia, Germany, England, Pakistan, Iran and Arab countries.

The number of tourists visiting Gobustan, which has already turned into the interesting touristy spot, continues to grow, Abdullayev told Azertac.Roughly 100,000 people visited Gobustan in 2016.

Gobustan is home to one of the world’s largest ancient petroglyphs collections.  Settled since the 8th millennium BC, the area contains more than 600,000 distinct paintings, going as far back as 20,000 years to as recent as 5,000 years ago.

The pictures dating back to 8 millenniums reflect different hunting scenes, ceremonial and ritual processes of the habitants of these places.

Gobustan petroglyphs were repeatedly investigated by the famous Norwegian explorer and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl, who recognized local boats petroglyphs as the oldest known images of pirogue in the world.

Most of the rock engravings depict primitive men, animals, battle-pieces, ritual dances, bullfights, boats with armed oarsmen, warriors with lances in their hands, camel caravans, pictures of sun and stars.

The museum in Gobustan consists of various exhibition halls, sections, equipped with interactive boards, touch screens, educational games, 3D videos, etc.

In the sections “Environment of Gobustan” and “Life of the ancient people”, one can see stuffed animals, mannequins, depicting ancient people that seem very realistic.

Don’t forget to visit the halls of the “Archaeological discovery in Gobustan”, “Life of the people of the ancient period”, “Time Travel”, “Meaning of petroglyphs”, “Animals and hunters”, “Artists of the ancient period of Gobustan” . Here one can learn a lot about the meaning of Gobustan rock drawings, archaeological excavations. Also, visitors to the museum can take a virtual flight in 3D, from a height to look at the natural landscape of the Gobustan reserve.

Gobustan was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2007. The Gobustan State Historical-Artistic Reserve has been included into the list of best European Museums.

Source: azernews.az