Baku, February 4, AZERTAC 

Italian “Corriere della sera” newspaper has published an article on the history of the development of oil industry in Azerbaijan. According to the article, Italians received the first information on the Caspian oil from records of the famous Italian traveler Marco Polo. Famous traveler called Baku “"a place where oil flows instead of water” and expressed astonishment with the oil resources in this city. He noted that, treatment of oil became a tradition in Azerbaijan. The ointment made from oil is used to treat various skin diseases.

Renaming Azerbaijan “Land of Fire” is not accidental. Flame rising from the depths of the earth in the Fire Temple “Ateshgah” amazes everyone. The capital of Azerbaijan, Baku has still been an important city in terms located on the Great Silk Road since the ancient times. Expressing resemblance of Baku to Dubai, the author spoke about the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline and its contribution to the development of Azerbaijan.

Informing about the Bibi Heybat Mosque, the author informed that it was destroyed by the Soviet government in 1934 and has been restored as a result of principled position of national leader Heydar Aliyev. The area of Bibi Heybat was one of the first mass-produced oil places.

Speaking about the development of oil industry in Azerbaijan, the author stresses the activities of Nobel brothers, and the Rothschilds in this direction. According to the author, the realization of oil tanker transportation coincides in this period: “Baku was providing about half of the world's oil demand at that time. Even in this city, there was no need to look for oil, because oil fountains would be found everywhere. All this wealth turned Baku into a magnificent city, junction of antiquity and modernity, Eastern and Western traditions.”