The City of Stone Content . If you ' re cutting your coins across Skyrim , you ' ll want to point your blade towards Markarth , the capital city of the Reach . There ' s no end of trouble in the City of Stone , and that means plenty of ways for you to earn your supper . Your sellsword instincts should point you towards the wealthiest patrons with the fattest purses to work for , but you need to mind yourself during your resting hours . Markarth isn ' t like your Whiterun , where mercenary companies like the Companions make a sellsword an honored professional . No , Markarth has its own rules , rules the natives aren ' t going to just tell you . Lucky for you , old Ms . Alleia is here to shine the torchlight over your thick skulls . First thing you ' ll notice in the City of Stone is . . . the stone . They say dwarves cut out the city from the mountain , and maybe they did by the look of it . But what it really means is that the whole place is vertical , and the streets are really cliffs . Long story short , be careful when you ' ve got a bellyful of mead . When you enter the city proper , you ' ll immediately hit the market . The merchants usually sell food and jewelry on the streets . Meat is the preferred ration , the craggy rocks in the area make for poor farming land , and silver is what ' s used to make most all the rings and necklaces you might buy , thanks to the large silver mine in the city ( we ' ll get to that in a bit ) . Whatever you do , don ' t ask the Markarth city guard about anything . They ' re about as helpful as an angry Frostbite Spider while you ' re caught in its web , and if you mention anything about the Forsworn to them they might spit in your eye . Speaking of the Forsworn , these wildmen and women will be your main source of income while you ' re in Markarth . The Jarl almost always has a bounty on some Forsworn leader or another , and if you don ' t mind going blade - to - axe with someone two septims short of a pint of ale , it ' s steady work . The Silver - Blood Inn is where you want to head into after seeing the market . The drinks are , as usual , watered down ( and judging by the metallic taste , with water from the rivers that run through the city ' s smelter district ) . What ' s important here is getting a room to stay in . You won ' t find any friendly faces to con your way into a cheap place to stay in Markarth . The natives don ' t trust strangers , so save yourself the trouble and put down your coin to rent a real room . After you ' ve spent a day recovering from travel , you ' ll see that Markarth is divided in two sides by the big crag in the center . The part with the big river running through it is called the Riverside , and the other is called the Dryside . The Riverside is where the smelter and native workers live , so don ' t bother going there . Instead , head directly to Dryside and talk to the local Nord nobles and see what problems you can start solving ( at the highest rate ) . Two major places to see are the Temple of Dibella and Cidhna Mine . The temple rests on the top of the central crag . A good place to go if you ' re on good terms with the Divines , but be warned , the Priestesses of Dibella don ' t allow men into their Inner Sanctums , so don ' t go crashing down in there uninvited unless you want a short trip to a long fall . Cidha Mine is the place where all the silver comes from that I mentioned before . But it ' s also the jail . Markarth uses prisoners to mine the ore , and there ' s a lot of it , so don ' t get caught doing something illegal in the city or you ' ll be hauled down there to dig . Apparently , the whole place is owned by one of the big families in the city , the Silver - Bloods ( notice the inn is named after them ? Always keep your sellsword eye open for hints like that ) . I tired meeting with the head of the Silver - Blood family to see if they had any work , but guarding their mines isn ' t the blood - rush I became a mercenary for . Something to keep in mind for yourself if you ' re thinking of staying a few months . The final place I ' ll talk about here is the Understone Keep , the home of the Jarl in Markarth . It ' s a fancy palace like any other ( assuming your palace is built underground ) , but what you need to know is the city underneath the keep . That ' s right , there ' s another city below Markarth . One of those old dwarven ruins . They sometimes have expeditions in the ruins that makes for a good job , guarding the scholars and maybe lifting a few stones here and there . If you ' re lucky , you might come across one of those old dwarven machines , and you can bring back a souvenir after you ' re done breaking it apart . All right , Ms . Alleia ' s hand is getting tired and that means this guide is done . Last piece of advice , don ' t cause trouble in Markarth . Don ' t start fights . Don ' t stop fights . Don ' t stick your head anywhere without someone from the city paying you for it , because believe me , no one in Markarth wants you there . Make your gold , drink your mead , see what ' s there to see , and move on . Nothing changes in the City of Stone , and that ' s just fine .