Though Stewart found the Minaret still standing, he encountered villagers who were conducting excavations of what they believed to be the lost city of the Turquoise Mountain, selling their finds to traders from Herat. Upon his return to the United Kingdom, Stewart contacted UNESCO to try to inform them of the scale of the damage being done by these unauthorised excavations, and confronted Professor Andrea Bruno at the British Museum in Bloomsbury in an attempt to raise awareness of its looting. He writes that he "was told that an archaeologist would begin work on the site in April 2003, sixteen months after my visit and long after the villagers had removed everything they could".
Stewart found that the Minaret still stood during his visit, but he encountered villagers who were conducting archaeological digs they believed to be the lost city of Turquoise Mountain, selling their artifacts to traders from Herat. Upon returning to the UK, Stewart contacted UNESCO to inform them about the damage being done by these unauthorized excavations and met with Professor Andrea Bruno at the British Museum in Bloomsbury to raise awareness about the looting.