Black Oil Mountain

Black Oil Mountain is located northeast of Karamay, just over two kilometers from the city center. It appears as a low hill with a relative height of only 13 meters, covering an area of approximately 0.2 square kilometers. The entire hill is black with an uneven surface, composed of sandstone soaked in oil or conglomerate cemented by petroleum. Due to the evaporation of volatile components in the oil, large areas of the surface appear dry.

"Karamay" means "black oil" in Uyghur, which is how this natural asphalt mound got its name, Black Oil Mountain. This black asphalt hill and the oil buried beneath it have been dormant here for hundreds of millions of years. The hill has multiple oil springs, forming numerous small oil pools with continuously bubbling crude oil that is thick and jet-black in color. At the top of the hill stands a 2.5-meter-tall granite monument erected in 1982, shaped like a cone, with the inscription "Black Oil Mountain" carved on its front.

Black Oil Mountain boasts extraordinary scenery, bordered by the Devil City to the east, the Manas River Xiaoguai Oasis to the west, and backed by Genghis Khan Mountain. Nearby, a Black Oil Mountain Park has been established, featuring a small pavilion on an isolated island within the park. Beside the pavilion stand three rare and precious pine tree fossils dating back over 200 million years. To honor the spirit of hard work and entrepreneurship, the Xinjiang Petroleum Administration Bureau and Karamay City erected a nearly 3-meter-high stone monument on October 1, 1982, along with a statue of a senior Uyghur man playing a rawap while riding a donkey.