Oil Rocks (Neft Dashlary): World’s First City Beyond Land

The world’s first offshore oil platform city built by sinking seven ships to create a foundation at 1,100 m depth, 86 km from Baku shoreline.

It eventually expanded to more than 200 km of steel trestle bridges and platforms supporting nine-storey residential buildings, a cultural palace, a bakery, a cinema, and parks with trees, housing 5,000 permanent workers.

At its peak (1960s-1970s), it produced 7 million tonnes of oil annually (20% of Azerbaijan’s total), proving the viability of extensive offshore development.

Listed in the Guinness World Records as the oldest offshore oil platform and the largest structure of its type, it demonstrated Azerbaijan’s technological leadership.

It featured full urban amenities including a hotel, a football field, a library, a hospital, and lemon trees grown in soil brought from the mainland - replicating a complete city life at sea.