Fire worship at the Ateshgah of Baku

At Surakhani near Baku, natural gas fires were tended by Hindu (and some Zoroastrian) ascetics; the temple's oldest firmly dated inscription, in Sanskrit and Persian, is from 1745.

1745 CE · 40.42, 50.01 · status: official

The account

Indian merchants and holy men on the trade route to Russia built the pentagonal caravanserai-temple with cells around a central fire altar; inscriptions invoke Ganesha and Jwala Ji (the goddess of flame). European travellers described the fire-worshippers into the 19th century. The natural flames died out in 1969 when the gas field was exploited; the fire is now piped in. The Absheron peninsula's burning ground gave Azerbaijan the name 'land of fire'.

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Ateshgah of Baku