Complex sentence: In the 1800s, despite its grandeur, its water was salty and seldom clean; diseases such as cholera, diphtheria, scarlatina, typhoid, and spotted fever quickly spread across Baku.
Split into simpler sentences: In the 1800s, despite its grandeur, its water was salty and seldom clean. Diseases such as cholera, diphtheria, scarlatina, typhoid, and spotted fever quickly spread across Baku.