Mount Imeon - Geography

Geography

A detailed description of the mountainous territory and its people was given in the Armenian geography index Ashharatsuyts written by Anania Shirakatsi in the 7th century AD (or possibly by Moses of Chorene in the 5th century.) According to the original Ashharatsuyts mapping reconstructed by Acad. Suren T. Eremian, the mountain system was divided into four branches (green dots in the map) corresponding respectively to four present ranges:

• Southern Imeon (‘Emavon’ in Armenian): Hindu Kush;
• Southeastern Imeon: Badakhshan and Pamir;
• Northern Imeon: Alay Mountains and the Tian Shan ranges situated north of Fergana Valley;
• Northeastern Imeon: central and eastern part of Tian Shan

The mountains bordered the lands of China in the east, India in the south, Aria in the west (the region around modern Herat, marked as ‘Arya’ on Eremian's map), and Khwarezm in the northwest.

The mountain system was crossed by a segment of the Silk Road leading westwards from Yarkand to the Stone Tower in eastern Pamir (mentioned by Ptolemy, and shown on the Ashharatsuyts map too), then through the Wakhan Corridor and Badakhshan to reach the ancient major city of Balh (Balkh). An alternative Northern Silk Road went from Kashgar to upper Alay Valley, then crossed the Alay Mountains to enter Fergana Valley.

Mount Imeon was famous for its lapis lazuli deposits in western Badakhshan, indicated on Shirakatsi’s map. The mines at Sar-e-Sang have been producing lapis lazuli for millennia now, supplying the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and Rome, and still yielding the world’s finest lapis. The Venetian adventurer Marco Polo visited the mines in 1271 during his famous journey to China, following the Silk Road to cross the mountains by way of Wakhan.