Pirallahi Island


Pirallahi Island or Pirallakhi Island is an island in the Caspian Sea. The island is part of Azerbaijan, and is located right off the northeastern shore of the Apsheron Peninsula, to the ENE of Baku.
The island is long and has a maximum width of. Administratively, Pirallahi Island belongs to the Pirallahi district of Baku.
Oil deposits on the northern part of Pirallahi are estimated at 1.2 million tons. Flights to other Caspian isles are available at the heliport on the southern tip of the island.

History

During Russian Imperial times the island's name was Svyatoy. It is said that undersea booty from a 1660 sea battle between Persians and Cossack leader Stepan Razin lies off the northern tip of the island.
Pirallahi Island is said to be the among the first places where oil was extracted in Azerbaijan, and in the 1820s it was divided into two separate areas, one residential, and another where oil was refined into paraffin. In 1934, oil explorers dropped metal drills off piers from the island, which at the time was considered an advancement in offshore oil exploration.

Artyom Island

While Azerbaijan was part of the Soviet Union, the island was renamed as Artyom Island after the pioneer revolutionary Comrade Artyom. Pirallahi Island still has a settlement called Artyom. The old Artyom village was evacuated due to rising water levels of the Caspian Sea and residents moved to a series of apartment towers built by German prisoners in 1948.

High-Tech Park

A 50-hectare industrial park, High-Tech Park, dedicated to the ICT industry, is being established on the island by the Azerbaijan Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies.