Zar Rabat! The place is known by the Arabic travel guides for Small An, here from the 9th century to the 13th century there was a fort in which gold was brought from the surrounding mines. Next to the fort was a workshop for smelting gold ore. And then, in bullion, gold was exported to Baghdad and Damascus.
After the passage of Genghis Khan in the winter of 1220, the mines were mothballed, and so they forgot. They were remembered only in the times of the second empire; geologists made maps according to toponymic names. Found some of them in 1970-1978. They started mining again, but they used mercury, which caused environmental damage. Production was closed again in the 1990s. Yes, they didn't return to him again. Until again, in the 00s, Canadian, British, and also US firms came and began to develop gold again. Production was about 5 tons per year.
But in ten years, production was closed, since 47 cents had to be spent on 1 dollar earned. In the center of the sands that lay 800 km west of the Light Mountains, gold could be mined directly from the desert. And for 1 dollar earned, costs were only 4 cents. About 20 years. Gold which lay at a depth of 10 cm, is now mined from a quarry with a depth of 500 meters. The total gold production from this deposit was 100 tons of gold per year. Moreover, the country was by no means rich. All gold disappeared in an unknown direction. As was the case in all banana republics, they were very rich in terms of resources - gold, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, uranium, oil, gas. But the population was very poor, the standard of living was not very high, per year, from 910 to 2100 dollars per person. Whereas if resources were honestly distributed as is done in Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Norway, then the standard of living of the population would be different. Since only a certain part of the people was very rich, then the majority of the population of Small Ahn were poor and poor. And, interestingly, Small-An is a country where during the time of the second empire, there was socialism. The current capitalists, formerly were party workers, and scolded all capitalism. Now they themselves have become those whom they scolded so mercilessly.
But these are all pages of history that have been turned over and all have been forgotten. Interestingly, even in the 21st century, countries can exist quite successfully, where the social system is at the level of feudalism. So strange was exactly Small-An.
---
Having located its new base on the second terrace in the mountain gorge Zar-Rabat, putting cars under an improvised awning. After setting up three tents, one for eating, a trench pit 2 meters deep, 1.5 wide, laid out with composite material, folded there carrots, sweet potatoes, beets, onions. They threw a rope on a tree and hung bread in a bag for 2 weeks. To prevent mice and birds from sticking. In a small tent for 4 people, bags of sugar, salt, beef stew, egg powder, matzoh, dried milk, milk powder, gallets, pepper, rice, buckwheat, oatmeal, dried meat were put in bags.
Two other tents were for Agabay and Barno, Firuz-Mirzo and Baraz. And Dara and Fang were accommodated in a jeep.
Firuz-Mirzo forced the two bastards to dig a ditch at each tent, 20 cm wide and thirty deep. It turned out like a horseshoe, in the center of which a tent was unfastened, and both ends of the horseshoe went under a slight slope of the second terrace, which looked at the floodplain at the bottom. This moat was necessary for life in the mountains.
Also near the mountain river, Firuz-Mirzo told Fang and Dara to dig a hole 2.5 meters deep, 2 by 2 meters in size. The distance from the river was 5 meters. From the bottom of the pit. scored a small spring. Here you can take clean water, a frugal Firuz instructively said.
To which Fang and Dara only looked at each other sourly, they brought with them enough bottled clean water, about 300 liters. Well, they don't argue with fears. They are pretty tired.
Arriving in the morning, setting up a camp, they were transported until the middle of the day. Not a hike in the mountains for the study of the ruins was out of the question.
...
Having set the burner, Dara began to cook was a dinner of stew and rice. But he was immediately stopped by Baraz.
He said, "Take your time in spending the stew, let's go to the locals, buy lamb from them, find out the news, make a normal and tasty dinner. Do you think the old people want to eat stew?"
...
Dara, Fang and Baraz went to the nearest village. There were five settlements in the mountain gorge, two were located at the entrance to the gorge. These were new villages built in the 70-80s of the 20th century. They consisted of forcibly resettled highlanders in the 30-40s of the 20th century. In the middle part, where the Dara camp was located, there were two more villages where 35 families lived and in the upper reaches of the gorge there was another village with 10 families. Previously, in the 18-19 and early 20 centuries, the gorge was more crowded, according to the topographic map of 1892 there were about 20 villages of 100 families each.
Now, going towards the village of Verkhny Zar-Rabat, they saw on both slopes of the gorge, the old ruins of abandoned villages, religious buildings.