The plateau of Gobustan is a dry, stony place, grey and ochre, with boulders scattered across low hills as if a giant had emptied a bag of rubble and left. Kichikdash, whose name means Little Stone, is one of those hills, a rocky outcrop in the reserve a few kilometres from the town of Qobustan, with the Caspian Sea visible in the distance on a clear day. Its bigger neighbour is Boyukdash, Big Stone, and together they hold some of the oldest pictures in the Caucasus.
The boulders here are covered in carvings. Hunters, animals, dancers, boats and strange stick figures are pecked into the rock, some of them thousands of years old, some of them far older. People lived in this area from the Stone Age, when the sea was closer and the climate wetter, and the carved images keep an extraordinary record of daily life. Walk slowly along the paths and the figures appear out of the rock the way constellations appear in the sky, after your eyes adjust.
The climate is semi-desert, with hot, dry summers, mild winters, and a wind that rarely stops. Spring, when the hills turn briefly green and flowers come out, is the best time to visit. In July and August the heat is hard, and with no shade, you will want water and a hat. The ground is gravel and dust, and the light in the late afternoon turns the stone to gold.
The road from Baku south along the Caspian coast is a fast, smooth highway, with long straights, trucks and the occasional police radar, and the plateau is about an hour from the capital. Qobustan, a town of some thirteen thousand, has fuel and a few basic places to eat, and Baku has everything. A short distance away are the mud volcanoes, small cones of grey clay that bubble and burp, which are among the odder sights of the region and worth the detour, though the tracks can be soft after rain. Go in the morning, when it is cooler and quieter.