The bitumen is of excellent quality, and was largely employed by the ancients.

The naphtha is of two kinds, black naphtha or petroleum, and white naphtha, which is much preferred to the other.

The bitumen-pits also, in some places, yielded salt.
Another useful mineral with which the Persians were very plentifully supplied, was sulphur.

Sulphur is found in Persia Proper, in Carmania, on the coast of Mekran, in Azerbijan, in the Elburz, on the Iranian plateau, in the vicinity of the Dead Sea, and in very large quantities near Mosul.

Here it is quarried in great blocks, which are conveyed to considerable distances.
Excellent stone for building purposes was obtainable in most parts of the Empire.