- Naptha was the word in Latin and Ancient Greek for raw Petroleum or Asphalt.
- It came from Mesopotamia and was well known in Classical Antiquity and used for burning.
Baba Gurgur
- Baba Gurgur is located 16 miles from Kirkuk in Iraq, which is built over the ancient city of Arrapha.
- Baba Gurgur means ‘Father of Fire’ in Kurdish, and has had flames of ‘Eternal Fire’ since Antiquity.
- They are formed by gas escaping from the oilfield below (only discovered in 1927).
Description in Ancient Sources
- Herodotus (484-420 BCE
- Described a place in Persia where asphalt oozed from the ground, and was collected in wineskins.
- Diodorus Siculus
- Writing between 60-30 BCE, described a unlimited spring of asphalt in that existed in Mesopotamia.
- Strabo (c.64 BCE to 24 CE)
- Described how asphalt would burn if ignited, but could not be put out by water.
Baba Gurgur