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Updated: May 15, 2025
Derbent is fortified with a thick well built wall, reaching from the castle at the foot of the mountain all the way to the sea; but not above a sixth part of the space within the walls is inhabited, all that end nearest the sea being in ruins, among which are several tombs.
Baku is the most frequented and the safest port on the Caspian. Derbent, situated more to the north, cannot keep up with it, and it absorbs almost the entire maritime traffic of this sea, or rather this great lake which has no communication with the neighboring seas. The establishment of Uzun Ada on the opposite coast has doubled the trade which used to pass through Baku.
On the west side of this sea are the mountains of the Alani and Lesgis, the Iron-gate or Derbent, and the mountains of Georgia. This sea, therefore, is environed on three sides by mountains, but by plain ground on the north.
For instance, once, after reviewing the Caucasus from Khassav-Urt to Novorossisk, and from Batum to Derbent, and, during the review, crossing the mountain range by three different routes at least, he remarked with a disparaging smile: "I suppose the Lord God made the country." "You do not like it, then? How should I? Good for nothing is what I call it."
The northern shores of this sea are low and swampy, often overgrown with reeds; but in many other parts the coasts are precipitous, with such deep water that a line of 450 fathoms will not reach the bottom. The best haven in the Caspian is that of Baku; that of Derbent is rocky, and that of Sensili not commodious, though one of the chief ports of trade."
There is another commander under Baatu-khan, called Berta or Berca, who pastures his flocks towards the Iron-gate, or Derbent, through which lies the passage of all the Saracens or Mahometans who come from Persia and Turkey, to pay their gifts and tributes to Baatu, and who make presents to Berta in their way.
The czar then seized Derbent, besieged Bakou, and finally made a treaty with one of the parties whose dissensions at that time filled with discord the empire of the Soofees: he procured the cession of Astrabad, the key of the Caspian Sea and, in some measure, of the whole Persian empire.
At the region from the west shore of the Caspian, where the Iron-gate of Alexander is situated, now called Derbent, and from the mountains of the Alani, and along the Palus Moeotis, or sea of Azoph, into which the Tanais falls, to the northern ocean, was anciently called Albania; in which Isidore says, that there were dogs of such strength and fierceness, as to fight with bulls, and even to overcome lions, which I have been assured by several persons to be true; and even, that towards the northern ocean, they have dogs of such size and strength, that the inhabitants make them draw carts like oxen .
When the factors came againe to talke with the captaine, they desired to goe to the Basha, and that he would safely conduct them thither: he granted their requests willingly, desiring them to goe with him to a village hard by, and there to abide with him that night, and the next day they should go to Bachu, and from thence to proceede on their iourney to Derbent.
During my residence in Derbent, I was anxious to learn some certain intelligence respecting the state of affairs at the court of Uzun-Hassan, for which purpose I sent Demetrius de Seze, my interpreter, with letters to Josaphat Barbaro at Tauris, which is twenty days journey from Derbent.
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