S96 SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTION OF PRECIOUS STONES 



frequently in the alluvial detritus. Stones of medium (juality are divided into four 

 sub-classes; the best of these are sent to Europe, the remainder being used in Persia and 

 elsewhere in the Orient. Stones of the poorest quality, that is to say, of a pale blue or green 

 ■colour, are sent only to Arabia, since in this country size and not colour or quality is the 

 chief consideration. A pound's weight of stones of the first quality is worth at the mines 

 about ^£"90, while the same weight of stones of the third quality is worth only about £5. In 

 Europe the price is far higher : it has been calculated that 25s. would be paid in Europe for 

 a stone which could be got at the mines for 10s. A carat-stone is worth at the mines from 

 5s. to 10s. according to quality, the higher price being paid only for stones of the best 

 ■quality. 



There are other localities for turquoise in Persia besides Maaden, but all are little 

 known and apparentlv much poorer. Turquoise has been found recently at Tabbas in the 

 province Khorassan, but not of good quality. Bogdanovitch mentions a deposit of turquoise 

 discovered not long ago, somewhere to the south of Meshed, about eighteen days' j ourney from 

 this town. Another locality which has been known, though imperfectly, for a longer period 

 is the province of Kerman in the interior of Persia. The mineral occurs at several places 

 north-east of the town of Kerman, in the great range of mountains composed of volcanic 

 rocks which stretches from north-west to south-east. At Chemen-i-M6-Aspan, four fersakhs 

 (eighteen miles) from Pariz and opposite G6d-i-Ahmer there are turquoise mines, which were 

 worked until quite recently ; the stones found here have a greenish tinge. At Karik, 

 north-east of Shehr-i-Babek, there is an old mine with two shafts, one of which was 

 destroyed by an earthquake only a few years ago, while the other has not been worked for 

 many years. A few veins of pale-coloured turquoise were found some years ago near 

 Mashiz, on the slopes of the Cheheltan mountains, the highest peak of which has an 

 altitude of over 12,000 feet. Turquoise is said to occur, and formerly to have been mined, 

 in the neighbourhood of Taft, near Yezd, on the Persian Gulf. 



It is stated that there are turquoise mines, yielding mostly green stones, further to 

 the north-west, beyond the Persian frontier between Herat and Western Turkestan. 

 According to the statements of ancient Arabian writers, the precious stone was found at 

 Chodshent, from whence came also the green callais (callaina) of Pliny, now considered to 

 be identical with tui-quoise. Other localities in the same region have also been recorded ; 

 for example, in 1887 in the mountain range Kara-Tube, fifty kilometres from Samarkand. 

 The turquoise occurs here in limonite and quartzose slate, and the place was, at some unknown 

 time, the scene of mining operations. Finds of turquoise have been made in the same 

 region in our own time ; for example, in the Syr Daria country in the Kuraminsk district 

 (in the Kara Mazar mountains), and also in the Karkaralinsk district in the Kirghiz Steppes 

 (Semipalatinsk territory of Siberia). These and other occurrences in the same region have 

 no commercial importance and need no further consideration. 



The next most important locality for turquoise in the old world is the Sinai 

 Peninsula : the mineral is found for the most part in the neighbourhood of Serbal, near 

 the west coast. The best known mines are situated in the Wadi Meghara or Maghara 

 (meaning hollow valley) ; these are very ancient and were worked on a large scale in ancient 

 Egyptian times, according to H. Brugsch, as early as the period of the Third Dynasty in the 

 reign of King Snefru, 4000 b.c. The discovery of numerous inscriptions and implements 

 of various kinds proves that a garrison was maintained here by the Egyptians for the 

 protection of the turquoise mines and of an important copper-mining industry. The 

 existence of these turquoise mines was for a long period completely forgotten ; they 

 were at length rediscovered by Major C. K. Macdonald. Work was at once recommenced, 



