BAKU

This article appears in Volume V03, Page 231 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: BAI-BAR

BAKU , the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

town of the government of the same name, in Russian Transcaucasia, on the south side of the peninsula of Apsheron, in 40 21' N. and 49 50' E. It is connected by rail with the south Russian railway system at Beslan, the junction for Vladikavkaz (400 M.), via Derbent and

Petrovsk

PETROVSK

, with Batum (56o m.) and Poti (536 m.) on the Black Sea via Tiflis. A long stone quay next the harbour is backed by the new town climbing up the slopes behind. ' To the west is the old town, consisting of steep, narrow, winding streets, and presenting a decidedly oriental

appearance

APPEARANCE (from Lat. apparere, to appear)

. Here are the ruins of a palace of the native khans, built in the 16th century; the mosques of the Persian shahs, built in 1078 and now converted into an arsenal; nearer the sea the " maidens' tower," transformed into a lighthouse; and not far from it remains of ancient walls projecting above the sea, and showing traces of Arabic architecture of the 9th and loth centuries. Beside the harbour are engineering works, dry docks and' barracks, stores and workshops belonging to the Russian Caspian

fleet

FLEET

. Besides the petroleum refineries the town possesses oil-works (for fuel), flour-mills, sulphuric acid works and tobacco factories. Owing to its excellent harbour Baku is a

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

depot for merchandise coming from Persia and Transcaspiaraw

cotton

, silk,

rice

, wine, fish, dried fruit and timberand for Russian manufactured goods. The climate is extreme, the mean temperature for the year being 58 F., for January 38 for July 8o; annual rainfall 9.4 in. A wind of exceptional violence blows sometimes from the N.N.W. in winter. Pop. (186o) 13,381; (1897) 112,253; (19o0) 179,133. The town is mentioned by the Arab geographer, Masudi, in the loth century. From r 5og it was in the possession of the Persians. The Russians captured it from them in 1723, but restored it in 1735; it was incorporated in the Russian empire in 18o6. In 1904-1905;
in consequence of the general political anarchy, serious conflicts took place here between the

Tatars

TATARS (the common form Tartars is less correct)

and the Armenians, and two-thirds of the Balakhani and Bibi-Eybat oil-works were burned.
See Marvin, The Region of the Eternal Fire (ed. 1891) and J. D.

Henry

, Baku, an Eventful History (1906). (P. A. K.)

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