The Fire Mountain Yanar Dag
is a natural gas fire which blazes continuously on a hillside on the Absheron Peninsula on the Caspian Sea near Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, which itself is known as the "land of fire." Flames jet out into the air 3 metres (9.8 ft) from a thin, porous sandstone layer.
Yanar Dag is also known by other names such as "pilpila", "bozdagh", "ahtarma" and "gaynarja." Unlike mud volcanoes, the Yanar Dag flame burns fairly steadily, as it is not a periodic eruption, but a steady seep of gas from the subsurface. It is also claimed that the Yanar Dag flame was only noted
when accidentally lit by a shepherd in the 1950s.
when accidentally lit by a shepherd in the 1950s.
