'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎264] (303/714)

PERSIA
as little solicitous of the dust of Omar el Kliayam as a nineteenth-
centuiy citizen of London might be of that of Matthew Paris or
William of Malmesbury.
Nishapur possesses a Telegraph station of the Meshed-Teheran
line worked by a Persian staff. It is also the meeting-point of
Roada several important roads in addition to the two from
Meshed. On the south a road comes in from Turshiz.
and on the north a track runs via Madan 1 (where are the turquoise
mines) to Kuchan; while in a more westerly direction stretches
the old long-forgotten trade route to the Caspian, which is believed
to have been a link in the great chain of overland connection in
the middle ages between China and India and the European
continent. It ran from Nishapur to the Arab city of Isferayin in
the plain of the same name, then struck westwards, and passing
through the mountains by the defile known as the Dahaneh-i-
Gurgan, through which the river Gurgan forces its way, descended
the slope to the Caspian. The stages on this route are recorded
in the itineraries of Isidore of Charax, and of El Istakhri, and the
caravanserais built by Shah Abbas the Great are still standing,
though in ruins.
About thirty-six miles in a north-westerly direction from
Nishapur, on the first of the roads above mentioned, are situated the
Turquoise famous turquoise mines of Madan (i.e. mines), which from
their proximity to the better known city have always
been called the mines of Nishapur. Though turquoises are or
have been found elsewhere in Persia, 2 and, it is sometimes said, in
other countries, these may for all practical purposes be regarded
as the only mines in the world that are worked or that repay
working on a large scale, and as the source of 999 out of every
1,000 turquoises that come into the market. The mines, of which
there are an immense number, actually worked, fallen in, or dis
used, are situated in a district some forty square miles in extent,
1 Described by Colonel Val. Baker (1873), Clouds in the East, pp. 166-171.
The other turquoise mines of which I have heard or read in Persia are:—
(1) Near Turshiz, leased by the Government (1889) for 500 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. a year, but
not worked ; they are mentioned by Bellew. (2) Near Tabbas, mentioned bj
MacGregor and Herbert. (3) Near Kerman, mentioned by Marco Polo, Langles, and
Herbert. (4) At Taft, in the district of Yezd, mentioned by Khanikoff, Napier, and
Herbert (5) At Kaleh Zeri, near Basiran, between Birjand and Neh, mentioned
by Khanikoff. The mines in the Kerman district are several in number: (o)
Those of Pariz at God-i-Ahmer ; (/8) near Mashiz ; (7) near Shehr-i-Babek. But
the stones of all these mines are very pale in colour and of no great value.