The New Student's Reference Work/Baku

Baku (bȧ-kōō'), a province of Russia, in Transcaucasia, situated on the western shores of the Caspian Sea, southeast of Tiflis and north of the rivers Kur and Aras, the latter separating Russia in Asia from Persia. Area, 15,061 square miles; population of province (1910), 1,013,900, and of the city (in 1909), the seat of administration for the Transcaucasian region, 177,777. The province in 1806 passed from Persian to Russian control, though the population largely remains Tartar and Armenian rather than Russian. There is a good harbor at the port of Baku, of importance to Russia as a naval station on the Caspian Sea and utilized as shipbuilding yards, as well as a port for the shipment of petroleum, the chief product of this region, and the yield of which is estimated at about nine million tons annually. Just north of the port is the great oil-well emporium and refineries, known as the Black Town, where, besides the crude oil works, are a number of chemical works, mills and tobacco factories. Much of the trade of Persia passes into Russia and western Europe through the port of Baku. Here spouting wells of petroleum may be seen all about, many destructive fires frequently occurring from the easily igniting gases as well as from the large areas of oil-saturated land.