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Lake Shiva and Marco Polo’s Ruby MinesI believe that Badakshan is going to become one of the great trekking destinations in the world. It is an area almost completely unknown beyond a small group of Afghan specialists and the nomads who spend their summers here with their flocks amidst some of the most spectacular mountain scenery in the world.
One of Afghanistan’s most famous sights is undoubtedly Lake Shiva. Until recently, it was difficult to get to and its status as one of the sources of the Oxus was only established in 1967 by the diplomat Hugh Leach. Today, there is a passable road from Faisabad though it leads no further and its end can be used as a base camp for a journey to the balas ruby mines described by Marco Polo and up the middle Oxus valley.Wilfred Thesiger visited in 1957, just missing the nomads:
‘At sunrise, we rode high up into the rolling sweep of bare mountains above the plain. I had hoped to find the Kandaris at their massed encampment beyond the pass above the Oxus valley, near lake Shiva, but we were too late. The nomads arrived at Shiva at the end of May; now, at the beginning of August, they had already left the lake where, it was said, two hundred thousand of them congregated with their flocks. Down slopes that were almost colourless in the hazy light, but for the vagrant shadows of scattered clouds, there came winding down towards us a continuous thread of men and camels tied head to tail, laden with tents, poles and the scanty furnishings and possessions of a nomad people; each camel decorated with tufted woollen head stalls and wide tasselled neckbands; many with bells fastened above their knees; laden donkeys and horses; small children and a woman or two perched on the loads; women in voluminous clothes with black draperies over their heads, leading strings of camels; bearded men and smooth faced youths striding past, in turbans, patterned waistcoats and long cloaks; and guard dogs padding by, formidable brutes that could kill a wolf.’ [Thesiger Among the Mountains pp. 149-150]The lake itself is an astonishing deep blue colour and the two-day trek around the edge is well worth making.
Afghanistan is home to some of the richest deposits of precious stones in the world, principally emeralds and rubies. But what is found here is slightly different: balas rubies otherwise known as spinels. Two of the most famous gems in the British Crown Jewels came from here: the Black Prince’s Ruby and Timur’s Ruby.
Eastwards, the track continues down to Shignan on the Oxus, the location of the balas ruby mines mentioned by Marco Polo and the source of sapphires, the location of which was probably rediscovered by the American gem hunter Gary Bowersox in 1994 (see www.gems-afghan.com and his book Gemstones of Afghanistan pp. 70- 71) at a village called Gharan, which means ‘cave’ or ‘mines’. The tunnels had been filled in but fragments of garnet were lying about on the ground.
From Shignan, one can trek on horses up the Oxus to Ishkashim.
