"In the 13th century, when Marco Polo visited the then-Persian city of Baku, he mentioned numerous mysterious flames that could be found all over the region at various places of the Abşeron Peninsula, close to Baku. These fires gave Azerbaijan the moniker “Land of Fire“. Even five centuries after Marco Polo, French writer Alexandre Dumas witnessed natural flames in a mysterious fire temple." - Maitani from Bookmarklet

"One can easily understand, how these natural flames must have amazed and terrified people in history, and it doesn’t come as a surprise that the natural fires of Azerbaijan are considered to have played a crucial part in the creation of Zoroastrianism – a mystical faith, centered around ceremonial fire cults, which appeared in the region around 2,000 years ago." - Maitani