Bart, Or Bakoo. I. Formerly an independent khanate, now a government of Russia, in Transcaucasia, bordering on the Caspian sea, and comprising the territory of Shirvan and part of Daghestan; area, 14,922 sq. m.; pop. in 1807, 480,229, including Russians, Caucasians, Armenians, and Parsees. It is traversed by the easternmost ranges of the Caucasus, and watered by the Kur and the Aras. The peninsula of Apsheron, comprised within this government, is remarkable for its mud volcanoes and naphtha springs. Near the town of Baku there are about 100 bituminous springs, several of which are worked, producing white and black naphtha. The principal sources are situated at a spot called Balegan, about 0 m. from the city of Baku. The quantity annually obtained in the district amounts to about 30,00( lbs. of the pure and 9,600,000 lbs. of the black naphtha. The naphtha is used by the natives for illuminating purposes. The country for several miles round the town of Baku is impregnated with inflammable matter. About 15 m N. E. of the town is a fire temple of the Gue bres nearly a mile in circumference, from the centre of which rises a bluish flame. Here are some small houses, and the inhabitants when they wish to smother the flame cover the place, enclosed with walls, by a thick loam.

When an incision is made in the floor, and a torch applied, the gas ignites, and when the fire is no longer needed it is again suppressed by closing the aperture. Not far from the town there is a boiling lake which is in constant motion, and gives out a flame altogether devoid of heat. After the warm showers of autumn the whole country appears to be on fire, and the flames frequently roll along the mountains in enormous masses and with incredible velocity. The fire does not burn, nor is it possible to detect the least heat in it, nor are the reeds or grass affected by it. These appearances never occur when the wind blows from the east. In former times the burning field was one of the most celebrated ateshgahs (shrines of grace) among the Guebres. Previous to its occupation by the Russians a voluntary human sacrifice was annually offered here - a youth who leaped with his horse into one of the fissures. A few adherents of this sect still make pilgrimages to the great ateshgah to worship the fire and perform penitential exercises, chiefly by night. The place is a walled quadrangle with an altar raised on a flight of steps in the centre. At each of the four corners stands a chimney 25 ft. high, from which issues a flame 3 ft. long.

Round the walls of this sanctum are a number of cells in which the priests and Guebres reside. The peninsula is also remarkable for its salt formation: in different parts of it there are 10 salt lakes, only one or two of which are worked, yielding annually about 10,000 tons. There are no trees in this peninsula, but portions of the territory have a layer of mould on which are raised wheat, barley, maize, melons, fruits, rice, cotton, and saffron. Opium is prepared, and a species of red and highly flavored onion not found elsewhere is cultivated. II. A seaport town on the W. coast of the Caspian, the capital of the preceding government, in lat. 40° 22' N. and lon. 49°40'"E., situated on the southern shore of the peninsula of Apsheron; pop. in 1807, 12,383, chiefly Mohammedans. The houses, terraced like those of other oriental towns, are built of naphtha and earth. The town is protected by a double wall built in the time of Peter the Great, has a custom house, military school, 10 Mohammedan private schools, 23 mosques, Russian, Greek, and Armenian churches, and a palace of the ancient khans built about the 7th century, and now used as an artillery arsenal.

The walls were once washed by the Caspian, but they are now 15 ft. from it; and in other places the sea has encroached upon the land, and the ruins of submerged buildings are discovered at a depth of 18 ft. The port of Baku is the most important on the Caspian, and a principal Russian naval station. The chief articles of trade are naphtha, iron, silk, shawls, linen and woollen goods, cotton, tobacco, indigo, fruits, fish, salt, and saffron. There are no factories. Baku existed in the 4th century. It fell into the hands of the Saracens, and after the downfall of the caliphate it passed into the power of the princes of Shirvan. In 1509 it was annexed to the Persian monarchy, and later was taken by the Turks, but recaptured by Shah Abbas I. In 1723 the city capitulated to the Russians under Matushkin, but was returned to the Persians at the peace of 1735. Later it was taken by the inhabitants of the Caucasus, and in 1806 it was again taken by the Russians under Gen. Bulkhakoff and finally annexed to Russia.