Mud volcanoes are a strange phenomenon of bubbling, spitting, and oozing grey mud, which is actually a mixture of water and soil, pushed out of the earth’s crust by gas field pressure. These are not like normal, hot lava volcanoes as the mud is cold and they rarely erupt.

Gobustan is estimated to have 300 of the planet’s 700 mud volcanoes, but not all of these are accessible to tourists, as some form islands out at sea. They are not the biggest of their kind, with the top of the cones varying from 10 to 15 meters, but these smaller ones do offer the opportunity to get close enough to touch, experience the bubbling sounds they evoke, and to watch in fascination, as they bubble away.