Two men, Yusif Amirbek oglu and Nabi Safi oglu, were especially known for their abilities in well digging. 1270-1280 Marco Polo of Venice wrote about oil in Azerbaijan in his memoirs while traveling along the Ancient Silk Route. He mentioned a fountain of oil which discharged such a great quantity of oil that they used to load it up on camel caravans. He noted that the oil was used as a salve to cure skin diseases in men and cattle. He discovered that the oil was considered good for burning and that in the neighboring country, no other oil was used in their lamps.
People come from long distances to procure it.
A well is dug by hand on the Absheron Peninsula to a depth of 35 meters. Records indicate that there were 50 oil wells on the Absheron Peninsula. By this time, approximately 120 oil wells had been dug on Absheron. 1820-1830 Industrial refining of oil started. A distillation machine for obtaining kerosene was invented in Baku.