lapis lazuli

lapis lazuli (lăp`ĭs lăz`lē), gem, deep blue, violet, or greenish blue in color and usually flecked with yellow iron pyrites. It is composed of lazurite, a complex sodium aluminum silicate, mixed with other minerals, and is usually found in masses, rather than in crystals, in metamorphosed limestones. Sources of supply are Afghanistan, Chile, Siberia, upper Myanmar, California, and Colorado. It was formerly made into vases and bowls and has been used from ancient times for beads and small ornaments. It was also extensively used in mosaics and was the "sapphire" of the ancients.

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lapis lazuli

Semiprecious stone valued for its deep-blue colour caused by the presence of the mineral lazurite, which is the source of the pigment ultramarine. Lapis lazuli is not a single mineral but an intergrowth lazurite with calcite, pyroxene, and commonly small grains of pyrite. The most important mines are in Afghanistan and Chile. Much of what is sold as lapis is an artificially dyed jasper from Germany that shows colourless specks of clear, crystallized quartz and never the goldlike flecks of pyrite that are characteristic of lapis lazuli.

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lapis lazuli

emblem of sexual purity. [Gem Symbolism: Kunz, 370]

See : Chastity