Its golden age was the twelfth century; but Tīmūr was not a man to tolerate any dissidence in his empire. His ruthless persecution stamped out Christianity in Central Asia. The museum also exhibits vessels of beautiful iridescent glass and pottery, the spoils of Afrāsiyāb, a city of immemorial antiquity, which covered the hills and ravines between Samarkand and the Zarafshān. The semi-mythical king whose name it bears[739] lived, according to tradition, in the eleventh century before Christ. That a high degree of civilisation was attained by the people of his long buried realm is proved by the exquisite designs of the lamps, urns, and pottery exhumed there. A rich harvest awaits systematic exploration.[740] The collection of mineral specimens is equally unworthy of Samarkand, for the mountains to the east of the city contain the potentialities of wealth beyond the dreams of avarice. There is a mountain of fine coal not twenty-five miles from the walls; and metals of all kinds abound.[741] The other modern institutions at Samarkand are more creditable to Russian enterprise. The jail, a large castellated structure resembling our own prison at Holloway, is scrupulously clean, and has most modern appliances for enforcing labour. The convicts are employed in weaving cotton, and all are healthy and well nourished. But the jail population in Central Asia is a fluctuating one; for criminals sentenced to long terms of imprisonment are deported by rail and steamer to Saghaleen, in the North-West Pacific.[742] Two orphanages for Russian children flourish; and the little inmates are happy, clean, and not depressed by that badge of servitude, a uniform. Samarkand is still a great emporium of trade, though it no longer serves as a depôt for the produce of British India and Afghanistān. The roads are thronged with shaggy camels, and carts perched on two gigantic wheels, which preserve their contents from the thorough wetting which an ordinary vehicle would give them while traversing the innumerable streams. The bazaars are not under cover as are those of Bokhārā, but the contents are quite as varied. Hides are a speciality of those parts--Astrakhans, prepared from the covering of the unborn lamb by Arabs, beautiful silky goats’ skin, and nearly every kind of furs are to be purchased at very moderate prices. An English merchant, who has been engaged for three years in this trade, avers that the profits exceed 40 per cent. The manufactures of silk and cotton are still important, in spite of the competition of Russian looms. [Illustration: THE MARKET NEAR BĪBĪ KHĀNŪM, SAMARKAND]