It was also a time of increased metallurgical production, so Iran earned a reputation as the armory of Asia. Most of the Sasanian mining centers were at the fringes of the Empire - in Armenia, the Caucasus and above all, Transoxania. The extraordinary mineral wealth of the Pamir Mountains on the eastern horizon of the Sasanian empire led to a legend among the Tajiks, an Iranian people living there, which is still told today. It said that when God was creating the world, he tripped over the Pamirs, dropping his jar of minerals, which spread across the region.