20160604_Azerbaijan_6928 Surakhani sRGB által Dan Lundberg

The central altar at the Atashgah (“Place of Fire”) Temple houses an eternal flame which was originally fueled by a natural-gas vent that had been venerated by flame-worshipping Zoroastrians for centuries. (Today the gas is provided by the local gas utility.) Flames can also flare from the chimneys atop the four corners of the altar. The four arches face the four corners of the earth. In the wall surrounding the courtyard are cells for monks. The Zoroastrian temple was destroyed and many Zoroastrians went to India following the introduction of Islam to the Caucasus in 643. During the 15th-17th centuries Hindu fire worshippers traveling with Silk Road trade caravans made the flame a pilgrimage site. The oldest part of the current temple/caravanserai (roadside inn) was built in 1713. The central temple-altar was built in 1810. With the development of oil and gas plants beginning in 1855, natural lights started to weaken. The flame finally went out, worshipping stopped, and the last Hindu priest left for India in 1883. The government restored the temple which reopened in 1975 as a museum and place of worship. [The term ‘Silk Road’ was coined in 1877 by German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen. The Silk Road contributed not only to the exchange of goods and technologies, but also to the mutual enrichment of cultures and traditions of different peoples. Direct maritime trade between Europe and the Far East ultimately supplanted the overland route.] On Google Earth: Atashgah Temple 40°24'55.91"N, 50° 0'30.88"E