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For thousands of years, from empire to empire, from even before Islam came to Iran, it’s been mined outside of Mashhad, in the neighboring Nishapur, where some of Iran’s most beloved classical poets are buried.

To this day, the color of Nishapur turquoise serves as the global standard against which all other turquoise is judged.

They said it might also scuttle their hoped-for archaeological surveys and excavations in partnership with Iraq and Iran, and a joint publication project on Nishapur with Iran.

Herat gradually recovered under the enlightened Ghorid kings, who were indeed natives of the province, though they preferred to hold their court amid their ancestral fortresses in the mountains of Ghor, so that at the time of Jenghiz Khan’s invasion it equalled or even exceeded in populousness and wealth its sister capitals Of Balkh, Merv and Nishapur, the united strength of the four cities being estimated at three millions of inhabitants.

Khayyam, born in a village situated near Nishapur, in Khorasan, went to complete his studies at the celebrated medresseh of that city, towards the end of the year 1042 of the Christian era.