Opening of the Exhibition: “Crossing Europe With Rock Art”

After the Côa Valley Rock Art was presented in Azerbaijan, the Côa Museum now hosts an exhibition by the Gobustan National Historical-Artistic Preserve, again promoted within the Council of Europe Cultural Itinerary, PRAT – Prehistoric Rock Art Trails.

The Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape is located west of the Gobustan Raion, between the Qaradağ raion Districts, Baku Administrative Territory, 64 kilometers southwest of the Gobustan Raion. In 1966, the region was declared Azerbaijan’s national historic monument to ensure the preservation and conservation of ancient carvings, rocks and caves with prehistoric inscriptions and hundreds of constantly active volcanoes.
In 2007, the site was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The Gobustan National Reserve is rich in archaeological records of the human presence. The reserve already has more than 6,000 individualized rock paintings, carved on hundreds of rocks, and artistically reveal the continuing presence of human occupation on the site, with engravings of primitive men, animals, battle pieces, ritual dances. , bullfighting, rowboats, warriors with spears in their hands, camel caravans, images of the sun and stars, produced over 20,000 years (end of the last Ice Age – Upper Paleolithic – until the Middle Ages). Gobustan is the most popular national reserve in the country and also concentrates the richest mineral reserve of Azerbaijan (WIKIPEDIA).

The opening of this exhibition closes the 1st National Meeting of Prehistoric Art, which will take place at the Côa Museum Auditorium, on October 9th, this year marking, for the first time, the European Day of Rock Art.