Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape, Azerbaijan

The site was inscribed under Criterion (iii): The rock engravings are an exceptional testimony to a way of life that has disappeared in the way they represent so graphically activities connected with hunting and fishing at a time when the climate and vegetation of the area were warmer and wetter than today.

The site also features the remains of inhabited caves, settlements and burials, all reflecting an intensive human use by the inhabitants of the area during the wet period that followed the last Ice Age, from the Upper Paleolithic to the Middle Ages.

The animals depicted are animals that need a moister climate than exists today. It is suggested that at the time of the earliest rock drawings the climate was wetter with verdant vegetation in the area.

The ‘Yalli’ dance is one of Gobustan’s most famous petroglyphs. It depicts dancers taking part in Azerbaijan’s traditional Yalli dance.

The Gaval Dash, which stands at the entrance to the park, is one of four musical stones found in the reserve. They were probably used as a percussion instrument. When this big, two-meter-long stone is struck with smaller rocks, it makes a hollow, ringing sound, resembling the sound of a tambourine, or "gaval" in Azerbaijani language.

Piles of stones forming what looked like huge labyrinths appeared in some areas among the ‘sea of rocks’.

A peculiar feature of the landscape are three flat-topped hills, named Boyukdash, Kichikdash and Jinghirdagh mountains, covered by large calcareous blocks (Absheron limestone), which were detached from the upper levels when the lower softer levels eroded.