Lapis lazuli (lapis) is a relatively rare semi precious gemstone with an intense blue color.

Lapis lazuli was being mined in Afganistan as early as the 3rd millennium BC. The other sources are Lake Baikal and Siberia. Trade in the stone is ancient enough for lapis jewels to be found at ancient Egyptian and Sumeian sites and neolithic burials. Lapis lazuli is a rock largely formed from the lazurite.

White colored lapis lazuli contains calcite, blue colored sodalite, metallic yellow colored pyrite. Some lapis lazuli contains trace amounts of the sulfur-rich variety geyerite. Lapis lazuli occurs in crystalline marble formed by contact metamorphism.

Lain word ‘Lapis’ means “stone” and lazuli is from the Persian ‘lāzaward’, meaning “heaven” or “sky”. It is the “stone of heaven” or “sky stone”. The name of the place came to be associated with the stone mined there and, eventually, with its color. The French ‘azur’, the Italian ‘azzurro’, the Polish lazur and the Spanish and Portugal ‘azul’ are cognates.

Afghanistan was the source of lapis for the ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations, as well as the later Greeks and Romans. In 2000 BC, the Harappan colony was established near the lapis mines. Lapis has been extracted for many years in the Andes, Lake Baikal, Siberia, Angola, Argentina, Burma, Pakistan, Canada, India, California and Colorado.

Lapis takes an excellent polish and can be made into jewelry, carvings, boxes, ornaments, and vases. It was also ground and processed to make paint. Its usage as a pigment in oil paint ended when a chemically identical synthetic variety called French ultramarine became available.