Sabayil Castle

Sabayil Castle is a submerged medieval fortress on the coast of the Caspian Sea near Baku, Azerbaijan.

[2] The castle was built on one of the Bayil hills near the Caspian Sea coast in 1232–33,[3] during the life of Fariburz, son of Shirvanshah Garsasb, by architect Abdul-Majid Masud oglu.

During a major earthquake in the capital city of Baku in 1306, the building collapsed and the island submerged and remained under water for several centuries.

According to Azerbaijani historian Sara Ashurbeyli, Sabayil is the castle mentioned by Abdurrashid Al-Bakuvi, a 15th-century geographer who alleged that the structure was destroyed during the 13th-century Mongol invasion.

Synykh Gala was the mosque in the 15th century, in the times of the Shah Ismail Khatai, and was destroyed by the troops of Peter I.

[7] From 1939 to 1969, an archaeological expedition organized by the Institute of History of the Azerbaijani Academy of Sciences, led by Prof Y. Pakhomov and archaeologists I. Jafarzade and O. Isimzade, discovered relics and, at different times, more than 700 inscribed stone panels.

Up to 30 percent of the stones recovered from the sea had been damaged by the centuries-long work of the waves and their inscriptions and images had been effaced.