Yanar Dag

Yanar Dag (Azerbaijani: Yanar Dağ, translated as "Fire Mountain"), 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 10 feet (3.0 m) from a thin, porous sandstone layer. However a visual comparison of the photos of Yanar Dag compared to images of "Mud volcanoes" will show the difference between this seep and the "sedimentary volcanoes" or "gas – oil volcanoes" concealed below land and sea in the Caspian region and which Azerbaijan has the largest concentration globally, though others exist in Turkey, Turkmenistan and elsewhere.

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. As noted in the photos, there is no seepage of mud or liquid from the seep, which distinguishes it from the nearby mud volcanoes of Lokbatan or Gobustan.