Valentine Gifts There are few precious stones, General Gifts as long as a romantic story like lapis lazuli. Featured Gift Despite being in several places around the world, the best lapis comes from the province of Badakhshan in northern Afghanistan, where he has been continuously mined for over 6,000 years.

Lapis lazuli is a precious commodity. It was used for sacred amulets in ancient Egypt and Assyrian cylinder seals and Babylon. Historians believe that Cleopatra used lapis lazuli powder eye shadow. The ancient Sumerian Royal Tombs of Ur, located near the Euphrates River in lower Iraq, contained more than 6000 beautifully executed lapis lazuli statuettes of birds, deer and rodents, as well as dishes, beads, and cylinder seals.

lapis lazuli powder was also the source for the blue pigment known as blue, used by painters of the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. The synthetic version was discovered abroad in the early 19th century and the use of expensive lapis lazuli pigments declined rapidly.

Lapis is one of the very few who is a rock and a mineral. This is because lapis is usually a mixture of three minerals: lazurita, calcite and pyrite. Lazurite, a compound of sulfur-containing minerals, is the essential ingredient of lapis lazuli and gives the color blue. Calcite is calcium carbonate, a white mineral responsible for the white stripes of many specimens of lapis lazuli. Pyrite is an iron sulfide is white gold and lapis lends its characteristic sheen.

The best lapis lazuli is deep blue. High quality lapis lazuli is soft and fine grained with a slightly polished surface. Collectors looking for a minimum of calcite. Calcite can be seen as white spots or stains on the darker blue, or can be distributed over the sample, giving the rock a lighter shade of blue in general. Pyrite inclusions are valued by collectors, but the inclusions should not be too large, because they have a tendency to discolor on the edges.

Lapis is a fairly soft stone, ranging from 5-6 on the Mohs scale. It is also a bit porous and must be protected solvents and chemicals. Lapis is almost always cut as cabochons or beads, or carved in a variety of ornamental objects. Although there are many choices today in lapis gemstones enough can be said to be the original blue stone. But it is unique for its rich history and associations of color.