Europe or Asia?

Trip Start May 15, 2007
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Trip End Aug 29, 2007


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Flag of Azerbaijan  ,
Sunday, July 29, 2007

Is Baku part of Europe or Asia?  On the map it has always appeared to me to be part of Asia but being here tells another story.  It looks and feels much more European than Asian.  Gazing upon the Caspian Sea, I realise that I traveled from sea to sea, from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea.  I learned that Baku is 27.5 meters below sea level.

Taking a journey south of the capital, Baku, and off the Absheron peninsula, we journeyed to Qobustan.  The mud vulcanoes were worth the trip but the highlight was going to see the petroglyphs and the eastern-most Latin/Roman inscription (which was barely visible).  Returning to Baku, we stopped at a beach on the Caspian Sea.  From the beach, one could see five oil rigs and one was so close to the beach!  The signs prohibit swimming but, being a beach, many were swimming anyway!

The next day, we visited a Zoroastrian Fire temple as well as the "Burning Hill."  The hill is literally burning from the natural gas emitted from the ground!  The journey to get there was something else; oil derricks everywhere like I have never seen before; so many and so concentrated.
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