Neft Dasları: Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 City Built On Oil Platforms

Far out into the Caspian Sea , a hundred kilometers away from the Azeri majuscule Baku , lies 1 of the virtually incredible settlements inwards the world. H5N1 fully functional metropolis of iii ,000 living inwards a network of oil platforms together with artificial islands connected past times 300 km of trestle bridges. This is Neft Daslari , every bit good known every bit Oil Rocks , together with it lies fully inside the world’s largest lake at an incredible distance of 55 km from the lake’s shore.

Azerbaijan has been famed for its rich oil resources since ancient times. There is bear witness of oil drilling together with actual merchandise inwards fossil oil every bit early on every bit the tertiary together with fourth centuries. Historical accounts of the area’s oil together with natural gas seepage tin hold upward flora inwards onetime Standard Arabic together with Western Farsi manuscripts , every bit good every bit inwards the writings of famous travellers such every bit Marco Polo. The Persians called the surface area the "Land of Fire”.

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Photo credit: geozet.ru

Modern drilling began inwards 1870 afterwards Russian Federation conquered the territory. By the start of the First World War , Azerbaijan’s oil wells were already supplying 175 1000000 barrels of unsmooth oil a twelvemonth , or 75 pct of the country's entire oil production. After the state of war , patch exploring for oil inwards the Caspian Sea , Soviet engineers struck top-quality oil at a depth of 1 ,100 meters below the seabed. Shortly thereafter , the world's showtime offshore oil platform was built at the location , together with Neft Daslari was born.

The master copy foundation of Neft Daslari consisted of vii sunken ships including the world's showtime oil tanker. Over the decades this grew to to a greater extent than or less 2 ,000 drilling platforms spread inwards a 30-kilometer circle , joined past times a network of span viaducts spanning 300 kilometers. Over these platforms , workers built eight-story floor blocks , a drinkable mill , soccer pitch , library , bakery , laundry , 300-seat painting exhibit theatre , bathhouse , vegetable garden together with fifty-fifty a tree-lined common for which the soil was brought from the mainland. During its heydays , to a greater extent than or less v ,000 workers lived here.

Neft Daslari’s refuse began alongside the collapse of the Soviet Union together with the uncovering of novel oilfields elsewhere. The workforce was reduced together with many oil rigs were abandoned. Neglect together with lack of maintenance caused many of them to collapse into the sea. Others are inwards the procedure of crumbling. Out of the 300 kilometers of roads , entirely 45 kilometers rest usable , together with fifty-fifty they convey fallen into disrepair. To the regime , all the same , the house is soundless the proud , closely-guarded hole-and-corner it was inwards Soviet times. It is soundless real difficult for foreigners to arrive at access to the city. You can’t fifty-fifty zoom into it on Google Maps.

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