Stars over Absheron

(autotranslated, could have mistakes)

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Lev Lagorio. Lighthouse. 1895

Baku and oil are inseparable concepts, just as they are inseparable

ships plying the troubled waters of the Caspian Sea, and lighthouses,

showing them the right path.

A star calling to the pier

Every time I was on Primorsky Boulevard, a multi-kilometer park area encircling Baku Bay, I spent a long time looking at the Maiden Tower (Gyz Galasi).

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Modern view of the Maiden Tower

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Maiden's Tower on a postcard from 1910

The gray bulk of a stone cylinder 28 m high and 16.5 m in diameter, with an adjacent protrusion-fin, involuntarily attracted the eye and made one think about the eternal.

Scientists - orientalists, architects and archaeologists have been arguing for centuries about who, when and, most importantly, why they created this cyclopean structure on a rock ledge, not far from the water's edge.

It's hollow inside. The cylinder, with walls ranging from five (at the base) to four (at the top) meters thick, is divided into eight tiers, connected by a spiral staircase hollowed out in the thickness of the masonry. There, in special niches, there is a pipe with a diameter of 30 cm. Light penetrates into the giant well through narrow rectangular windows cut out in each tier, expanding, like loopholes, oriented to the southeast. There is a well in the floor.

The purpose of the protrusion adjacent to the outside remains a mystery. According to experts, it could not serve as either a buttress, a hiding place (solid masonry without any voids), or a “spur” reflecting stone cores. And, according to historians and fortifiers, the tower’s parameters do not correspond to a fortification. The “ribbed” masonry of the outer walls from above and approximately to the middle of the tower in the form of alternating protruding and recessed stone belts is also unusual and incomprehensible from a functional point of view.

A number of scientists suggest, and not without reason, that the tower was originally built as a religious building for fire worshipers. Research has confirmed that the system of internal niches, ceramic pipes and “fire” wells could well create sufficient draft to supply fossil gas to the lamps in the floor niches, where the “eternal” lights burned, and to the upper platform of the tower with seven stone altar stands. A seven-headed flame, blazing around the clock, crowned the grandiose structure with a fiery crown. In this case, the explanation of specialists - gas dynamics - for the purpose of the stone ledge is quite logical. It served as a screen that ensured aeration of the combustion zone and stable maintenance of the flame in ritual niches under any weather conditions, direction and strength of wind. The fires of Giz Galasy most likely went out on their own, with the depletion of the gas-bearing layer.

It can be assumed that the lights at the top of the tower served not only for ritual purposes, but also showed the way for ships going to Baku Bay. After all, fire beacons, known to sailors since ancient times, existed on the shores of European states until the middle of the 19th century. The last of them in the Kattegat Strait was extinguished only in 1846. Perhaps it was precisely because of the depletion of the underground gas source that the fiery star at the top of Gyz Galasa, which for centuries called storm-torn ships to its native berth, did not live to see the time of lighthouse construction in the Caspian Sea...

...Baku Bay is the best in the Caspian Sea in terms of geographical location, length of coastline (about 20 km) and hydrological indicators. Studies by Russian hydrographers in 1854 showed that “the area around the Absheron Peninsula constitutes the most important part of the Caspian Sea in relation to shipping, because all commercial and military ships sailing between Astrakhan, Transcaucasia and the Persian ports certainly pass through this part of the sea.” The military did not hesitate for long when choosing a location for the future base. “The depth of the coastal water,” we read in one of the annual reports of the Maritime Ministry, “the soil that firmly holds the anchor, the healthy climate, constantly refreshed by the winds, the proximity of native oil fires that provide free illumination, strongly encourages this area to be preferred in maritime terms, especially since ships from the Baku Bay can go to sea all year round, while Astrakhan is locked in ice for about four months.”

The transfer of the district center to Baku in 1859 and the rapidly developing oil industry initiated the intensity of shipping, and with the beginning of the use of tankers by the Nobel brothers, oil cargo traffic increased many times over. This required taking urgent measures to ensure navigational safety. Since there were no light beacons in the Caspian Sea at that time, and the issue was urgent, the Maiden Tower, the tallest city building at that time, was adapted as a lighthouse. A booth with a lantern was installed at its top. The lighting apparatus with oil lamps and reflectors began to operate at dusk on June 13, 1858. The visibility range of the fire was about 10 miles. During the day, a wide white stripe painted at the top of the tower served as a guide. But the city was growing rapidly, outpacing all the largest cities in Europe; the fire of the Maiden Tower became poorly visible against the background of city lights. And as before, the islands of the Baku archipelago, located in the waters of the bay, caused great trouble to the navigators. Especially Nargen and Pork.

A star named Boyuk Zira

This is the current name of Nargen Island, located in the southeastern part of Baku Bay. In the pilotage of the mid-19th century. about it it is reported: “Nargen is an island in the Baku Bay, Caspian Sea, Baku province, ... has a length from northeast to southwest up to 2 1/2 versts and a width from 200 to 400 fathoms. The island is mostly rocky and only in places sandy and covered with grass. It received its name from Peter I due to its similarity to the island of the same name, lying in the Gulf of Finland.”

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Construction of the Nargen lighthouse tower

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Baku Bay

In 1865, shipowners of the Caspian Sea turned to the Hydrographic Department with a request to mark the entrance from the northeast to the Baku roadstead with a lighthouse. In a memorandum based on the results of the search for a suitable location, hydrographers stated: “Nargen Island for the construction of a lighthouse is in the most favorable conditions, both for the production of work and for the delivery of materials. The soil is hard, mostly slab. The lighthouse is supposed to be built on the western side of the island, 70 fathoms from the edge of the coast. Since the island is 7 versts from Baku, and even less from Bailov Cape, communication is always possible by steam boat.” This proposal was also supported by shipowners, however, the head of the Maritime Ministry, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, strongly opposed it, considering the installation of a lighthouse on Svinoy Island to be of paramount importance. To improve the navigation situation in the Baku roadstead, he proposed increasing the fire on the Maiden Tower. There was reason in the Grand Duke’s arguments - in the Svinoye area there are many abandoned drilling rigs, trestles and separately protruding bushes of piles in the sea. Sailing at night is not safe there, while an important sea route from Baku to Lankaran and further to the southern shores of Kas runs past the island

piya.

However, as years passed, the construction of the lighthouse on Svinoy was postponed for various reasons. Nargen was also waiting in the wings. The wait dragged on, and the number of maritime accidents in the area grew. There were especially many of them during the Akhal-Teke expedition of General M.D. Skobelev on the capture of Turkmenistan (1880-1881), when not only all the ships of the Caspian flotilla, but also commercial vessels were used for the uninterrupted supply of Russian troops with food and property. Caravans headed east in a continuous stream.

In 1881, the chief commander of the Baku port reported to the Maritime Ministry and the Hydrographic Department: “... the entrance to the Baku Bay from the sea is almost unprotected, and meanwhile the commercial movement of ships in the Caspian Sea takes place mainly between Baku, Krasnovodsk and the mouth of the Volga, and ships must stop far from the entrance at a shallow depth, which is unsafe in high waves. The lighthouse on the Maiden Tower can only be useful when entering a roadstead, and even then not always, since its fire merges with the city lights. I would consider first of all building a lighthouse on Nargen Island so that ships could go around the island close and then freely enter Baku Bay.” However, this time the Admiral General did not change his decision. The chief commander of the Baku port had to go to St. Petersburg and personally convince the Grand Duke. Obviously, the arguments turned out to be compelling, since 7,602 rubles were soon allocated for the construction of the lighthouse.

On March 26, 1883, the manager of the Maritime Ministry approved the project, and on June 27, construction work began. The lighthouse, combined with a residential building, and all service premises were built from local stone. In January 1885, a notice appeared in the “Pilot’s Notes”: “The Hydrographic Department for the information of seafarers reports that in the Caspian Sea on the western tip of Nargina Island, at the entrance to Baku Bay, lighting of a new lighthouse has been opened. The light of the lighthouse is constant, white, with flashes every 15 seconds. It is located at an elevation of 4 feet above sea level and, illuminating an arc of the horizon of 325°, ... has a lighting apparatus refracting the 4th category.”

With the commissioning of the Nargen lighthouse, the need for fire on the Maiden Tower disappeared, and it was extinguished. Now forever...Given its navigational importance, the Nargen lighthouse was constantly improved. In 1912, the tower was built on and a new lantern structure was installed on its top with the first lighthouse acetylene lighting apparatus in Russia, manufactured to a special order by the Stockholm company Gazoakkumulyator. In the year when he first lit an acetylene fire, the 53-year-old head of the company, the talented engineer Nils Gustav Dahlen, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his “invention of automatic regulators used in combination with gas batteries for light sources in lighthouses and buoys.” But the author did not have the chance to receive an honorary award. On the eve of leaving for Stockholm, while testing a new experimental sample of a lighting device, an explosion occurred, and Dalen lost his sight. His brother received the award...

During the First World War, Nargen became a place of detention for captured Turkish soldiers and officers. As documents show, people left to the mercy of fate died in dozens every day from hunger, dehydration, intestinal infections, snake bites and cruel torture by guards. In the “execution” thirties, hundreds of repressed Soviet people languished on the island, awaiting death.

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the lighthouse was blown up. The military command feared that in the event of a breakthrough by fascist troops onto the peninsula, it would become a convenient target for massive bombing of the Baku oil fields. After the war, an air defense garrison settled on the island, and Nargen became a closed military facility for many decades.

The lighthouse was restored only in 1958. On the hill of the middle part of the island, a stone 18-meter octagonal truncated tower with a lantern structure was built, equipping it with a complex

optical navigation system.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, no one needed the island. The military left, abandoning their equipment and villages. Only the lighthouse continued to show the way for the ships. They began to serve it on a watch basis, and since then no one has lived permanently on the island. The duty shift, having served two weeks, leaves for the mainland, giving way to its colleagues. The equipment is powered by solar panels, and if the electricity is not enough, diesel electric generators are connected. The island has been turned into a graveyard for decommissioned warships and civilian vessels.

Recently, the possibility of implementing a grandiose project to transform Nargen has been actively discussed in the Baku media. The Dream Island project is valued at approximately US$2 billion. It is reported that the complex will consist of fashionable villas, buildings of ultra-modern architecture, an international university, a hospital, a golf course and all the necessary administrative buildings. The electricity problem is supposed to be solved using the power of wind, water and sun. Water desalination plants and rainwater collectors will provide unlimited amounts of drinking water. It’s as if a working design for an eco-resort has already been prepared in the form of seven giant buildings, stylized as the famous mountain peaks of Azerbaijan. It is possible that the island will be connected to Baku by a giant bridge, but initially a sea taxi service should operate on the seaside boulevard in Baku for 24-hour communication with the island.

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One of the projects for transforming Nargen Island into “Dream Island”

We can only hope that the ambitious project will be implemented, and after a short time, the night sky over Absheron will be illuminated by the bright star of the revived Boyuk Zira island...

Fire Star Sengi Mugan

Hydrological research in the middle of the 19th century. on Svinoy Island (since 1991 Sengi Mugan) showed that it “represents the remains of a large mud volcano, furrowed with hills and potholes. Four spots on its vast, flat crater erupt with steam and some dirt. There is no historical data on eruptions on the island, at least not for the last hundred years.” However, given the possibility of powerful eruptions, hydrologists recommended developing a design for a lighthouse tower with increased seismic resistance. The Marine Construction Committee recommended taking the Runo (Baltic Sea) lighthouse tower “made of tubular metal” as a basis. Over ten years of operation in difficult conditions (construction was completed in 1877), the tower did not have a single complaint.

Tubular metal towers developed by the Marseille Technical Society (Compagnine des Forgest et Chantiers) were then an engineering novelty in Russian lighthouse construction. The openwork structure, made of boiler iron and half an inch (1.27 cm) thick, looked graceful and light. A central multi-section riveted pipe (trunk) with a diameter of two meters with a spiral staircase and interfloor platforms inside, was crowned by a round metal compartment of the watch room, the internal walls of which were “felt-lined with double wooden cladding made of durable species,” and a lattice glazed lantern structure with a gallery. The room had a fireplace and everything necessary for watchkeeping and relaxation. The compartment was separated from the remaining floors by a sealed vestibule. A winch was used to lift loads, and all interfloor floorings had hatches surrounded by railings for safety. To access the lantern structure, a folding hatch and a wall ladder were installed in the ceiling of the watch room. From the outside, the tower was supported by four tubular metal buttresses connected to the trunk by horizontal connections.

They chose a place on the southern slope for the lighthouse. Test drilling showed that in this place lies a thick layer of compacted clay, capable of supporting the load of not only an iron, but also a stone tower. Bank protection work was carried out to prevent soil erosion, and a pier was built and a horse-drawn iron track was installed to deliver cargo to the construction site. The construction of the tower began directly in 1887, and three years later (June 2, 1891) in the presence of the chief commander of the Baku port, the command of the Caspian flotilla and numerous honored guests, a trial lighting of the lighthouse was carried out in a solemn atmosphere. Six months later, a notice to seafarers appeared in the “Pilot’s Notes”: “... in the Caspian Sea, at the newly built lighthouse on Svinom Island, a 1st category apparatus was installed with a constant white light, illuminating the entire horizon for 15.2 miles.”

...The disaster occurred on April 11, 1932. At 18:30 a loud roar was heard. The ground shook. A huge black cloud burst to the surface and enveloped part of the island and the lighthouse tower. All the inhabitants, leaving their homes in panic, rushed to the pier to the kulaz (sailing fishing boat), trying to escape into the sea. At that moment, an explosion thundered, creating a fiery whirlwind that instantly covered most of the island and people. The fire whirlwind raged for no more than 10-15 minutes. By 18:40 the fire was localized above the crater, gradually dying out. On the island, the siren building, service premises, signal mast, and pier were on fire. All the greenery and pets burned...

In this fiery nightmare, the lighthouse keeper Ivan Makarov showed extraordinary courage and perseverance. As soon as the ship's doctors provided first aid to the severely burned caretaker, he demanded that he be immediately transported to the island. He was eager to go there, having lost his entire family in the fire, to save the lighthouse, not thinking about a possible re-eruption, not heeding persuasion and advice. According to the captain of the Yakov Zevin, “one could only be amazed at the presence of spirit and willpower of this man.”

Lighthouse attendants A. Dmitriev and I. Loschilin volunteered to go to the island with him. Not paying attention to the heat, the suffocating smell of burning and dull underground rumbles, they eliminated the fires, saved property and, with the increasing wind, under the pressure of which the lantern glass, cracked from the high temperature, began to collapse, at dusk they lit the lighthouse fire. They extinguished it, in order to avoid the destruction of the expensive lighting apparatus, only after deep after midnight the Yakov Zevin with the wounded on board disappeared over the horizon...

Of the 18 employees who were on the island at the time of the disaster, 13 people died, about a third of the island was filled with thick erupted mud 6-8 m thick, the rest was severely burned. The conclusions of the commission of inquiry recommended that the lighthouse be overhauled, all wooden buildings replaced with stone ones, a special shelter built in case of a repeat eruption, employees be provided with fire-resistant clothing, and a motor boat allocated to the lighthouse. Until these requirements were met, the lighthouse was mothballed, a temporary automatic fire was installed, and two volunteers without families were left on the island to protect the property.

Specialists from the geological department of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences came to the conclusion that a re-eruption is possible, but does not pose a danger to the lighthouse if the lighthouse tower and all external premises are treated with a special fire-resistant coating. In their opinion, the cloud of flame was burning gas, and the casualties could have been avoided if the residents had remained in their stone houses and not jumped out into the open. Taking into account the psychological tension of people after the disaster, scientists proposed switching the lighthouse maintenance to a watch method with the duration of stay of shift crews on the island from one to three months.

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Ship graveyard near Nargen Island

However, the lighthouse was left mothballed. It was put into operation after repairs and re-equipment of the lantern light only in 1942. The restored lighthouse was illuminated using a kerosene heating installation, and in 1950 it was switched to electric lighting. The red openwork tower still towers over the island buildings. During the day it is clearly visible for many miles, and at night a white flashing star 22 miles from the island warns sailors of danger and wishes them a good journey...

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Sergey AKSENTIEV

Published with the kind permission of Aksentiev S.T.

Published in the magazine "Technology for Youth" No. 1 2011 P.42-45