Absheron peninsula is the very heart of Azerbaijan. It’s where splendid Baku is situated, where life is in full swing, from where the sea is so close. And Absheron is the place of the highest oil production. It has been made here for almost thousand of years but it still does not end!
This area is quite specific, rather severe and industrial, still very impressive.
Rusty towers keep pumping the entrails of earth out.
Of course, not everyone would like such landscapes but there is something majestic about this equipment anyway.
It’s all done by humans but they can rarely be seen here.
It’s hard to believe but oil has been extracted here since the Middle Ages! It’s wrong to think that people started to go crazy about “black gold” only a hundred years ago. Almost a thousand years ago it was used for treatment and lighting. Some oil treatments still exist in Azerbaijan.
Even Marco Polo described the Absheron oil extraction who was here when traveled from Baku to Persia in 1264.
But real oil rush began in Azerbaijan in the end of the nineteenth century. Businessmen and adventurers from all over the world looking for fast buck came here and drilled wells.
The ancient Ramana fortress is towering over the oil fields. It’s already five centuries but you won’t find much information about it in the Internet.
This fortress is the only ancient structure preserved in the village which is nearly two thousand years old! It is said to be founded in the end of the 90s of the first century by the Romans!
Not a single person around.
Oh, except this one, with a key from the fortress.
This must be the smallest world castle.
Panorama of the oil fields from the fortress.
Another part of the village is much more busier.
Plastic basin, anyone?
What could this sign mean?
Guests are often treated to tea.
What an unusual color!
“Your KAMAZ – your rules!”
And oil, everywhere…
it’s an old lighthouse on another shore.
The Caspian Sea.
To the east from the peninsula there is an island Piralakhi with the only town on it – Artem. Workers of the oil industry used to live here in the Soviet times and they still do.
It is so much different from Baku! They often hang portraits of presidents on the houses.
The rigs surround the island from all sides. Work is in full swing. The territory is guarded.
New roads are going to be built.
Locals say that soon the oil production will stop and the resort will be made on the island.
But who will ever bathe in these waters?
However the water is warm and rather pleasant.
The Caspian Sea must be the dirtiest and the unhappiest sea of the world. Besides it is landlocked – fresh water cannot be obtained here.
People left, there was too much oil in the area.
Remnants of the Caspian oil fleet..
via macos
No comments :
Post a Comment