Baku
History of Baku traces its roots back to the antiquity, though exact date of its establishment is not known up to present. Territory of Absheron peninsula, where the city is located, has very favorable geographic location, comfortable bay, warm dry climate, fruitful soil, natural resource, so the appearance of the ancient settlements here is quite understandable.
Baku, its, oil, 'burning land' were known far from its boundaries long time ago. "Eternal fires" in its outskirts are always reminded in the written sources of the middle ages related to Baku. Byzantine Pisk Paniysky, who was describing the cities of Caucasian Albania, was one of the first ones who informed about them at the beginning of V century. he noted about the place, where "the flame was rising from the underwater rock". Baku had been noted in the essays of Arabic geographers and historians as small but developed feudal city since IX century. Undoubtedly, Baku is a source of white and dark-gray oil. Caravans from the whole Near East, Slovenian, Byzantine, Chinese, Venetian, Indian merchants were coming here for the oil.