Shirvan National Park

Shirvan National Park is a national park of Azerbaijan. The semi-desert national park located just over 100 kilometres southwest of Baku combines wildlife, dunes and a short stretch coastline. Visitors enjoy landscapes and diversity of fauna with its large population of gazelles, jungle cats and turtles. More than 200 species of bird also live inside Shirvan National Park, including 32 rare ones. Bungalows and camping sites are available for overnight stays.

The reserve`s activity is focused on the protection and reproduction of the Goitered Gazelle, waterfowl birds and typical plant biotypes of the Shirvan Lowland.

Moreover, mud volcanoes imprint the scenery of Shirvan National Park. There are three mud volcanoes in the Shirvan National Park, which are rich in terms of their high bulging craters. The difference of mud volcanoes in the area are their excretion of liquid mud and oil instead of fiery lava. The mud is pressed to the surface by gases like methane or hydrogen sulphide. While the semi-desert is characterized by a scattered vegetation cover, the mud volcanoes are almost free of vegetation. Bandovan Mountain is the most famous mud volcano in the park.