Western Route: Naftalan

Not far from the town of Goranboy (the district center) lies the small TOWN OF NAFTALAN. Population: 6,500.

It is a resort town with sanatoriums and boarding houses where patients are treated with Naftalan oil and ointments made from it.

Naftalan is a good remedy for treating wounds, skin, nervous, urological and gynecological diseases, as well as conditions of the liver, joints and the soft periarticular tissues of the musculoskeletal system.

The town was built on the site of a small village of the same name. The name comes from the word NAFTA, meaning "flowing out, seeping", in the language of ancient Media, one of the states that existed on the territory of Azerbaijan. Several thousand years ago people in Azerbaijan already knew about and knew how to use not only oil but also Naftalan for various purposes. Not only the locals, but also the warriors of Alexander the Great, Roman legionaries, the Vikings who raided Azerbaijan, the Alans, the Khazars and members of other tribes treated their wounds with Naftalan. Naftalan was also an export: it was carried along caravan routes to other lands, to Kievan Rus, Central Asia, Afghanistan, India and the countries of the Persian Gulf. The famous medieval traveler Marco Polo describes Naftalan as "a magic ointment that helps against skin diseases".

When the oil industry boom began in Baku in the 19th century, many Europeans came to Azerbaijan: engineers, industrialists, bankers. In 1874 a German engineer named Jaeger became interested in local people's stories about Naftalan and set up production of "Naftalan" ointment in Germany. He exported it to various countries around the world. The German producers of the ointment based on Azerbaijani Naftalan were evidently good managers, because the ointment was used beyond Europe too: in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, Japanese soldiers had jars of Naftalan ointment in their standard first-aid kits as a first-aid remedy. The jars even bore the inscription: "He who has this ointment does not fear wounds".