Oil Stones - a city on stilts

In the Caspian Sea is a unique city of Oil Rocks. It is located at a distance of 42 kilometers from the Apsheron Peninsula. Its peculiarity lies in the fact that the city stands on metal stilts. What was the reason for creating such an unusual city? As you can see from the name - it's oil. Large-scale geological research began here in 1945-1948. It was then that a large oil field was discovered .

The first extraction from the seabed in the place of the town of Neft Dashlari was carried out by the Azerbaijani specialists on November 7, 1948. It was on this day from the 942-meter depth that the Caspian oil was filled with a fountain. Immediately after that, it was decided to start the construction of the platform. In order to create the base of the drilling platforms, 7 ships were flooded, among which was the world's first oil tanker, built in 1878 in Switzerland by the Nobel brothers. Numerous attempts to lift it from the seabed resulted in a defeat, since it is too well welded to the bottom.

So, in 1952, at a distance of 42 kilometers from the coast, thanks to hundreds of thousands of cubes of stone and sand imported from the land, an artificial island of more than 7,000 hectares with the name "Oil Rocks" appeared. In the shortest time, 16 residential two-story houses, two five-story dormitories, two power stations, a public bathhouse, shops, a hospital, a home, a library, a club were built. A little later, there was a construction of a new residential complex consisting of nine-storey houses. In addition, sewage treatment plants were built. And in 1960 there was a building of the Baku Oil Technical School. The City of Petroleum Stones prospered and developed. In 1966-1975 there was a construction of a bakery and a lemonade shop, the products of which were sent to dry land. In order to make living in this village as comfortable as possible, a park with trees and flowers was laid out where you can spend your free time perfectly and enjoy the scent of greenery.

The sea city of Petroleum Stones is connected with Baku by telephone. Products, clothing, medicines and household items here are delivered by steamer or helicopter. The average number of people living on an artificial island is about 2,000 people. They serve more than 200 oil stations. You can move around the village either on foot or by car. The length of the streets is about 250 kilometers. The main occupation of the townspeople is to work at the station on a rotational basis.

Today, the Oil Rocks are not getting enough investment, so the island is heavily cluttered with garbage. In addition, the roads are not subject to proper repair, therefore some of them have already gone under water. Despite this, the city still remains a unique structure, which is recommended to visit during the rest in Azerbaijan. It should be noted that this island became a "movie star". It was used as a decoration in one of the films telling about James Bond.