CHAPTER IV THE OIL-FIELDS AND THE FIRE-TEMPLE OF BAKU
- By a towne called B a c k o , neere vnto which towne is a strange thing to
behold — for there issueth out of the ground a marueilous quantitie of Oyle.' — Jeffrey Ducket, Fift Voyage into Persia, p. 439.
A VISIT to the oil wells at the fields in the Balakhany- Sabunchy-Romany region, about eight miles northward from Baku, or at Bibi Eibat, some three miles south of the city, is an interesting experience. It was my pleasant privilege, during my first visit at Baku, to pay such a visit under the guidance of the British vice-consul, Mr. Urquhart, whose kindness was equaled only by his knowledge of Baku and all that relates to the city.
On entering the fields, one becomes lost amid a maze of towering derricks, erected over the wells to operate them. These pyramidal wooden structures are covered with gypsolite or iron plating as a protection against fire. The shafts of the wells are often sunk fifteen hundred or two thousand feet to strike the oil.^ Metal tubes, from six to twelve inches in diameter, are inserted in the bores so as to serve as pipes through which the precious liquid may spring upward or be drawn to the surface by a metallic bucket, the ' bailer,' ready to pass in iron conduits to the refinery in Black Town and become one of the richest articles of commerce.
There are over two thousand of these wells in the Apsheron
(Absharan) Peninsula, on which Baku stands, and one can
hardly conceive of the activity implied in this wilderness of
1 A good idea of the difficulties con- gained from Norman, All the Bussias, nected with making these borings may be pp. 219-227, New York, 1904.
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