Naftalan

Naftalan sits on a field of unusually heavy crude that has been used as a medical treatment since the late nineteenth century, when a German entrepreneur first bottled it. The town is a row of sanatoriums where patients lie in baths of warm black oil for ten minutes at a time, followed by scraping and showering, prescribed as a course over a week or more for joint and skin conditions. A small museum displays the crutches and sticks left behind by former patients, which is the town's own account of what it does.

History

Archaeological finds here go back to the 12th century, and the name joins the Greek naphtha, oil, to an Azerbaijani suffix. The Naftalan resort has worked since 1933, a laboratory studying the biological and healing effects of Naftalan oil was set up in 1938 and another in Naftalan itself in 1965, and on 28 April 1967 the settlement, until then part of the Goranboy and Yevlakh districts, became a town of its own (Wikipedia, Naftalan, Azerbaijan).

The main sights

• The oil baths - immersion in warm heavy crude, administered in courses at the sanatoriums.
• The crutch museum - walking aids left by patients, displayed as evidence of cures.
• The sanatoriums - a mix of Soviet-era buildings and newer hotels, all built around the same treatment.
• The oil itself - a thick, black, strongly smelling crude quite unlike refinery products.

When to go

Year-round, since the treatment is indoors and the sanatoriums operate all year. Courses run over several days and are booked in advance. Summer on this plain is hot outside the buildings.

Good to know

The medical claims are made by the sanatoriums and are not established by the standards used elsewhere; anyone with a real condition should treat this as a curiosity rather than a treatment plan. The smell gets into clothes and hair and takes several washes to shift. There is nothing else in the town.

Nearby

Ganja is about an hour west, and the Barda mausoleum is southeast on the plain.

Key facts