The best Lapis Lazuli stones have been mined from the steep Hindu Kush in north-east Afghanistan for 6,500 years. Nature also created deposits in the Chilean Andes and in Russian.
Lapis is the Latin word for stone and Azula means blue in Arabic. The gemstone was amongst the first to be used as jewellery decorative chains and figures have been found at Predynastic Egyptian sites, and Neolithic burial grounds in Mehrgarh. (more…)