Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/91

 HISTORY AND TOPOGRAPHY OF BAKU

��Caspian Sea, bringing or despatching great quantities of im- ported and exported goods, while the railway on either side of the Caucasus and the petroleum pipe-line to Batum never cease to convey its oil to all parts of Europe. It is true that the heterogeneous character of its population has at times been a drawback to progress ; and as recently as 1905 the streets flowed with blood in the riots and massacres that took place between the Tatars and Armenians and resulted in a temporary de- struction of the oil fields by fire. We saw signs of the sanguinary struggle and heard stories of the atrocities committed ; but the wounds of this civil war have already been healed, and will soon be forgotten, even if the scars remain; business was quickly resumed, and the town is in flourishing condition at this hour.^

Topographically, the city lies almost at the middle point of a crescent formed by the bay that cuts with graceful sweep into the Apsheron Penin- sula on the north, but turns its sickle-curve with a slightly jagged edge be- fore it reaches the point that extends near Bibi- Eibat on the south. The town, as I have said, is a modern place sprung up on an ancient site. The Caspian, now lower than it was in olden times, has allowed this new town con- 'siderable space for spreading along the strand of the bay and to crowd its way rearwards, pushing old Baku back to its very walls. These walls mark the historic capital, the

Eng^nogc. SOURCES OF NAPHTHA

��Baku and its Environs

��1 Au account of the uprisings among the Orientals in 1905 will

��be found in the volume by Henry, Baku, pp. 148-214.

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