Meanwhile, Schorr and Hughes were busy planning a gem-hunting trip to the Congo, where a close friend had an in with the Minister of Corruption. Sitting in Bangkok, Vincent Pardieu began to see rubies from Tajikistan. In addition, that same trip he journeyed to the relatively new ruby deposits in eastern Tajikistan near the Chinese border.įlash forward to early 2006. Following several aborted stabs, and with the end of the civil war, Bowersox was finally able to visit the mines in the summer of 2005. But they lay one bridge too far, across the border in Tajikistan. On one of his annual visits to Afghanistan's hinterlands, he was able to photograph the historic mines, at a place called Kuh-i-Lal. It was left to Bowersox to put together the final pieces of this puzzle. Map of Tajikistan, showing the location of the spinel mines at Kuh-i-Lal and the ruby mines at Snezhny. But where? This town was literally bisected by the Panj (Pamir) River which formed the border between the two nations. Both had independently concluded that these mines lay right along the Afghan-Tajik border, somewhere in the vicinity of Ishkashim. By the mid-1990s, Richard Hughes and Afghan gem specialist Gary Bowersox were comparing notes. But the newly-independent Tajikistan almost immediately entered a period of civil war, one where the eastern Gorno-Badakhshan region became both a rebel stronghold and a war zone.ĭespite the war, the gemological detective work continued. Several of the Soviet republics demanded and were granted independence, including Tajikistan. That changed with the Soviet collapse in 1989. And since Tsarist times, what is now Tajikistan was a strategic border region of Russia, verboten to all foreigners. In reality, the Badakhshan region straddles both NE Afghanistan and eastern Tajikistan. Early accounts put the locality in Badakhshan and many writers (including Hughes), assumed this meant it lay in Afghanistan. The answer is one of bad politics and worse geography. How could such a famous locality go so utterly MIA? When one of the authors (RH) began researching his first book, he became intrigued by the accounts of these mines which, despite being the alleged source of the Black Prince's Ruby and Timur Ruby, had completely slipped off the gemological radar. For well over a millennium, this land has held one of the most important gemological secrets, that of the balas ruby. Photo © Wimon Manorotkul/Pala International It was this material which set the authors off on their quest for the source. Rough ruby reputed to be from Tajikistan. Having braved Manhattan's dangerous tunnels, we feel qualified to discuss what some might regard as an even greater peril: travel to Tajikistan. Lou was singing about the New York subways. Boo! If the pox or pollution don't gettcha, al Qaeda is close behind. Boo! International travel is undertaken only by the clinically insane or those with Special Ops experience. Boo! Earth is one giant pool of war, disease and pestilence. In our business, travel should be de rigueur. A 2006 mission to remote ruby and spinel localities in Tajikistan.