who now harvest these precious pearls of the year olds and how do they go about it are there modern day treasure maps where x. really marks the spot i've been in mine shaft scarred the secrets of gemstone still buried deep beneath the earth. the border between europe and asia the word girls men belt an old turkey and a chain of precious and semiprecious stone deposits that follows the mountain range for hundreds of kilometers from north to south has long been known as the gemstone belt of the. heart of the gemstone delta some eighty kilometers north of yucatan the landscape is dotted with defunct pits. anatoly in a forest ranger lives in a log cabin near the abandoned simeone in sky a mine shaft which was famous for its rich deposits in the nineteenth century.

the most valuable can be found here. crystal and more able. to copper wires bend at the right angle and placed inside metal tubes point to a gemstone vein. this may be geological prospecting on the cheap but it's a method that's really great rewards for some practitioners. look the part that means of thing runs somewhere from the northeast. to southwest. as soon as we move away from the vein and then go back to their initial position. here they tell us there are lots of veins there all over the place here's another one and. as soon as we move away they go back to their initial position i think the energy coming from the people in the earth's magnetic field play

a part in this when you go along a vein come across a hollow where the sticks cross over each other like this. what we don't know is the depth of the vein. to get closer to the contacts this is where the closest to the surface. where you won't find anything but splinters through. three diggers are looking for blue aquamarine crystals in an old pit looking for gems as these diggers way of life many of them do it as a sideline but some are full time professionals. here it gets out of the surface. in the old days. right here.

now. they know what to do and their intuition helps dave determine the veins direction and now they're trying to break through to it as they remove a pile of stones. there are some pretty big chunks here. we examine them. and break them up. there might be some crystals in the. blue crystals inside milk white cts a thick and sticky substance these aquamarine are not used for jury they're mainly for collectors if you diggers patient and lucky enough you might find something like this. all these miners are certain they'll hit their streak of luck some day and many vin seek support from the mistress of the cop or. local people regard her as the patron saint of diggers. she appears as a magical lizard wearing

a golden crown. my dear kind lady in all humility with an open heart not with evil thoughts please give me a nice stone don't leave me out to dry help me find the church stone first i was skeptical about it but when i try there's a soul that had worked. this stretch of highway follows an underground strip of rock packed with emeralds barrel and alexandra. emerald banda some thirty kilometers wide and about two kilometers in length this is the birthplace of geologist. emeralds are the main line of his research. from time immemorial people here have literally been sitting on them or some of the veins are forty to fifty meters below ground a long time ago the french dug for emeralds and beets they used to be nearby you might say people are walking on emeralds but you can see for yourself.

i d's swampy banks of the river produced a geological sensation in the early nineteenth century. it is in one thousand one stumbled on pale aquamarine colored stone. it took them to you could see it in a book where scientists said they were emeralds in the summer of eight hundred thirty one emeralds were found right here on the banks of this river and exactly in first bits these unique emeralds were found. jim stone experts regard emeralds found in the year olds as the best in the world they use a special scale to assess the color and transparency of a stone but there's another special quality of these your old chum stones that won't appear on any scale but why did they see emeril of the supposed to be a green color i will create a look at this one you see a trace of blue in that this means they come from

a pit yes this blue streak tells you that they were dug out from. the village of the emerald capital of the year olds it's seen better days beryl was produced here in the soviet era a strategic material used in nuclear reactors before the early one nine hundred eighty s. it was mined in an open pit later an underground mine was built on the site. parents live in militia. his father is a mining engineer he spent a lifetime working in the chefs. with the. produce a more strategically important enterprise. in those days. were just a byproduct so to speak the break up of the soviet union and the economic downturn that followed in its wake eventually brought production to a halt demolish if pit has been closed since one thousand nine hundred three its

equipment is gradually falling into disrepair only heavy duty pumps are still in operation pumping out subterranean water from the pier. scientists say some seven hundred kilograms of emeralds valued at twenty four million dollars could be produced here each year but the pit remains closed meanwhile law enforcement officials say that up to fifteen thousand carats of your all emeralds are illegally traded annually supplied by informal miners who take emeralds from wherever they can find them most often it's from garden piles of refuse at abandoned mine shafts . files you see in the background have been flushed only once flushing will reveal that the ra still gemstones their so-called crude crystals. these waste piles have been flushed three times but they no longer belong to anybody some call them the miracle field others the field of fools if. you want to know why the place

has this name anyone without special qualifications can find gems there would be the envy of any collector now here's a valuable stone. it seems to be a bare ileum crystal. it doesn't look too good as it's covered with dust and claims that. it isn't fact an emerald in accordance with international close if occasional . but here in the urals is just called the emerald green or. some jewelry firms indian ones in particular are only too ready to buy such cheap stones they're specially treated and then resold at the price of emeralds. aleksandr cell of ana fizzed generally recognized as an expert on the certification of emeralds and other precious stones the certificate guarantees that the customer is not buying so-called refined beryllium or to put it plainly fake emeralds. emeralds are a variety of. they only different color. painting radioisotopes and other

methods will change their color. has set up a certification center in the town of study and. in addition he's founded a private museum of minerals and jewelry complete with gem cutting workshops the art of stone cutting alone produces unique gems from emeralds and more modest semi-precious stones like topaz amethyst and other colored crystals. each gemstone splinter or even a plain looking one is given a new lease on life important as well as local stones are cut here but local stones no matter how plain they might be are dearer to the master's hearts. closer to the soul. because. there's a fountain in front of the museum in the small courtyard visitors are immediately

drawn to its rich decoration covered in uncut chunks of greenish barrel it stands as a monument to the locals love for their gemstones. to clinch. live. entertainment and infiltrate into. high production simply. because. this is the. people's attention by using. million. live .

close. the old village of. a long time ago women

and children used to wash. at the cattle. today. which once belonged to a local priest. with years of experience. hundred years ago.

show me. the students. hunting for. anyone with enthusiasm. in the praise of the professional. this is a captivating and useful experience. like . valuable gift in a different era sacks full of much bigger trauma lines were hauled from here to village fairs it's impossible to estimate how many of these were incinerated in to

produce nickel. what you've got there. oh yeah it's real big well worth the effort. there's a praiseworthy stone. well. how are we going to divide them among us. from time to time the pit steep sides reveal gemstone outcroppings dangerous rift was discovered only a few years ago diggers got away with the crystals in no time but they were at risk of being buried alive in a massive landslide. let's get in there to see if anything is left of the vein. for you pin you know you stay put for a while. sometimes people do get inside the vein this is dangerous. numerous gemstone pits are scattered in the forests around the village but few

people know where gemstones were mined in the old days. you need no me with its relation to this trend share is for exploration he would accuse the merchants open and workman mind it's supposed to be they were off the top barrel but they were only the top layer there are several pits here it would fit you thirty to forty percent of them and certainly not more than fifty percent have been worked out there in manger should be down there has to have. a mill that belonged dissolved in the merchant who own the pits stood here by the riverside a long time ago stories of treasures are well known but all that remains of the mill are wall fragments and old grindstones lying in the grass the mill produced more than simple flour. for those of us here is his silver mill who is made flour but they also can the hope of finding gold in it

is there and they mind stones in these pages or ancestors did work hard but then the stones had a heart of value they worked like titans and they got paid for the job their work was well the compensated. nearly every village in the gemstone belt has one or two more shots handling semiprecious stones most of the people working in cramped conditions using worn out obsolete equipment are self-taught craftsmen. these workshops are anything but cost effective they can survive because marginal people don't stay long. it's not an easy job if you're doing it and you've got to look at a new group as you can't give it up just like that when the stones are like little

kids when you first hold them and your hands that are rough but you know what you need to work and polish them and only then do they look so modeless. these are my kids polished and sparkling with you looking model us. several times a year stone cutters come the board to attend a fair featuring serpent tonight rhoda knight jasper cornelian and many more their wares reflect the whole spectrum of semiprecious stones found in the urals these are pieces of art made from landscape jasper from the southern year olds and these are all lumps of rock crystal from the northern end of the same mountain range other tables display deskilling jewelry from the traditional ural school most of the masters and diggers have known one another for years there aren't that many new faces. only a handful of. work with local stones everybody is trying to make goods for popular

consumption. there's a brisk trade in melaka where from year at the fair the euro master scoffed at african malakai because of its banal striped pattern. that used to be mined in the euro's is only found in museums. deposits have been completely exhausted. what do people take home from the euro's gemstones jasper and now a kind those are the stones they so shape with are original but this malakai is from africa most people are well aware of the fact there are still willing to buy an. artist a lego pile of cards flowers from stone he matches and with this petals with leaves made of nephrite nephrite leaves look exactly like the real thing spots and all. tiny silver pins are used to hold parts of the flower together because the glue

doesn't last long alone the flower itself is more durable and it can never weather . the light radiates through its petals and the flower seems alive but looks are deceptive as the lifeless flower is hard and cool to the touch. stone as. if it doesn't feel like being a flower it's going to be one in the beginning on made several attempts to tame stones but nothing came of it. as a result i had a whole bucket of waste flows and leaves only then did i realize that stones could never be time to. display at the museum of stone. collector owns these pieces. his collection isn't limited to. he's devoted

a lifetime to it. around the world recognize that his unique municipal authorities have helped him set up a museum of his own. how to mosque to more than two thousand items i realize that this fine collection should belong to my hometown and everybody must have a chance to see it's. you know in his own right widely known in the his home collection is nothing spectacular but each item reveals a bit about him. just look at these sugar like crystals. very unusual. and this is an image that's jim. out in the open. if. you. talk to these colored courts. they're really wonderful. forget any

problems or misfortune. many of these stones remind of the same place where the legendary mining engineer found gemstones one hundred years ago academics went to for advice and he made great contributions to geology though he never revealed all his secrets or he was the first and only one to find. you found. twelve carrots. just couldn't find a single one in many years until he should shy have devoted himself to studying old maps and the legacy of past mining engineers by retracing their forgotten paths. there are no records of the legacy of our ancestors none what nothing about pits that's all. until issued shy of joining city give a look and director of the rez have mineralogical reserve on frequent visits to the

pits to assess their deposits. exploring the pits is going to require a lot of digging. there's nothing but barren rock here no crystallization. there's something left. if we have to find some big samples. ok let's get on with the job. diggers rely on telltale signs rather than intuition they know that if they don't see such signs there's no point in messing about in that vein here is a very thin vein its center than your little finger there will be a make no mistake about it where it joins the torch vein over there crystals all

over the place i'm telling you. this pit was once thought to be empty but there are still some treasures to be found if the crystal is flushed and polished it will begin to sparkle. you should be done very carefully if you've got clever fingers you'll make a nice rose very beautiful. sciences yet on ravel all the mysteries of the gemstone belt. researchers studying old gemstone pits mapped them according to the accounts of pioneers who often refused to disclose all of their secrets. i myself don't believe in mysteries a mystery is simply so. thing you don't know a good miner has no secrets except a place where he's working there are many pits to be found in the gemstone belt. but their contents remain unknown with nobody knows the new.

day in and day out they go from one pit to another driving an all terrain vehicle through the forests where their forefathers also mind. the secrets of old miners are being put back on the maps this immune and sky pit is a case in point it's gemstone deposit as not been exhausted. the winch is still in good order the pain has not even peeled off and the rope remained from the soviet times if you still find. people we need to do is to put the engine on place as soon as the engine is here the winch will start working. but old records say the speed was forty meters deep is that when a large nast of crystals was found at a depth of only fourteen meters. this means that the main has good prospects with the bill because apparently they were planning to mine stones at a lower level if the p.v.

is to be restored and made up aeration all this will require an outlay of at least one hundred million roubles but it's not yet clear who will furnish that kind of capital. if water is pumped out miners could regain access to chefs that produced riches for over a hundred years lying deep beneath the earth's surface gemstones are just waiting for someone to rediscover their unique beauty.

these are the.

twenty six. spotlight interviews. about how the role of the u.n. organization to promote culture changed over the last fifty years.