Yanar Dag — which translates literally as 'Burning Mountain' — is a natural gas fire that has burned continuously along a hillside on the Absheron Peninsula, roughly 25 kilometres north of central Baku. The flames leap about three metres high from a thin seam of porous sandstone, fed by methane that seeps up through the rock and ignites on contact with air. It doesn't erupt or fluctuate dramatically; it simply burns, steadily and permanently, regardless of rain or wind. That constancy is what makes it genuinely strange to stand in front of.
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