Yanar Dag — "burning mountain" — is a hillside about thirty kilometres north of Baku where a sheet of natural gas has been burning continuously out of the rock face for centuries. The flames, two to three metres high along a ten-metre wall of stone, are most dramatic at dusk and after dark, when the surrounding plain disappears into shadow.
The site has been tidied up into a small park with a viewing platform, a teahouse, and a small museum on the country's geology and fire heritage. It is a quick visit — maybe forty-five minutes — and is easily combined with the Ateshgah Fire Temple on the same afternoon. Most Baku tour operators bundle the two.