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 The tenth century Arab, Istakhri, was the first historian and geographer to record a visit to a lapis mine in Afghanistan in his book Kitab al-masalik wa-al-mamalik
. (Nothing is known of Istakhri; what survives of his writings is apparently only a synopsis of a larger work).
Some perspective on the history of Afghanistan's Sar-e-Sang mines -- in 1832 the road to the mine was destroyed by an earthquake -- and it still hasn't been repaired.An area described as a "smuggler's stronghold," visitors anticipating a visit to Sar-e-Sang are told it's probably wise to bring bodyguards.
Because of its high altitude and extreme cold, the Sar-e-Sang can be mined for only six months a year, from June through November.
Traversing the Oxus River ca. 1272, near where the current nebulous borders of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Tajikistan meet, Marco Polo (1254-1324) wrote: "There is a mountain in that region where the finest azure [lapis lazuli] in the world is found. It appears in veins like silver streaks."
The Kokcha River is the eastern tributary of the
Amu Darya (formerly known as the
Oxus).
Afghanistan has been called the "Roof of the World," "Land of the Unconquerable," and "Land of the Courageous." |
in the smugglers' stronghold
Lapis has one of the longest histories of any decorative rock or gem and Afghanistan sits on the world's richest lode.
pack train in high, desolate terrain above the kokcha river; kokcha valley After motoring as far as Hazarat-Said, the mines can only be reached by traveling at least a day, if not more, over a rutted wreck of a track that can scarcely be called a road -- after which one must spend another full day on horseback.
if you don't wish to die...
On behalf of the East India Company, British Army Lieutenant John Wood hiked into the Sar-e-Sang mine site in 1837, which at that time could only be reached on foot. The latest iteration of a series of mines, it was located in the face of a mountain in the Kokcha Valley (at that point only about 200 feet wide), about 1500 feet above the Kokcha River. It must have been one heck of a trip because later, recollecting his 'adventure' in Journey to the Source of the River Oxus, John Woods wrote, "If you do not wish to die, avoid the Valley of Kokcha." Peter Bancraft, in his classic book, Gem and Crystal Treasures says of the mines:
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Inhabitants of one of the world's earliest civilizations (ca. 7,000 BC), by about 3000 BC -- Ur -- a Sumerian city-state had emerged to control the area.
Ur has been called the original "superpower."
The term Mesopotamia
was coined by the Greeks. It meant "the land between the rivers."
Sumer was the Biblical 'Shinar' mentioned in Genesis. Its people called themselves "the black-headed ones."
By the middle of the fourth millennium BC, Sumerians had become one of the most socially and technologically sophisticated peoples on earth.One of the most well-known lapis artifacts from Ur -- discovered in the Royal Tombs of Ur in the 1920's -- is known as "Ram Caught in a Thicket." A statuette of a standing goat, it's fashioned from gold, silver, lapis lazuli and other precious materials. |
sophisticated sumer
When lapis began leaving Kokcha -- possibly as early as 4000 BC -- historians believe that one of its primary destinations was the prosperous city-state of Ur in Sumer (Mesopotamia), a richly diversified ancient culture between the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers.
photo: world history In Ur (modern Tall al-Muqayyar, Iraq), lapis objects figure significantly from around the time of the Early Dynastic period (2900 BC - 2370 BC). In fact, lapis had such significance in Sumerian culture that it assumed a metaphorical role in Sumer's literature, being synonymous with wealth and gleaming splendor -- an attribute of gods and heroes.
Of Sumer, Bancroft says:
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Called the "stone of rulers," in ancient kingdoms like Sumer and Egypt, lapis was forbidden to commoners, worn only by royalty.
Egyptians so revered the reputed power of lapis that it was one of the three most often used stones in their jewelry, along with turquoise and carnelian. The lapis purchased by the Egyptians at Sippar came from Bactriana
, the ancient name for a country between the Hindu Kush (main mountain range in Afghanistan) and the Amu Darya (Oxus). Its capital was
Bactra
(now the minor town of Balkh in northern Afghanistan), legendary birthplace of the prophet Zoroaster.A stela in the Berlin Museum tells about an official named Ikhernofret, living in the Middle Kingdom, who was ordered by pharaoh to use 'Nubian gold' for decorating a cult statue of Osiris, and to construct a new shrine out of cedar wood for the god, inlaying it with gold, lapis, silver, and bronze.
King Tutankhamen's burial mask has blue petals of lapis in imitation of the kohl make-up he would have worn in life.
Prized as a healing stone by the Egyptians, hieroglyphs tell of its use with milk and slime from the Nile as a treatment for cataracts as well as neuralgia and head pains.
Egyptians believed that if one could hold Sa (the invisible mysterious fluid that flows throughout statues of gods and goddesses) long enough, one's flesh would turn to gold, the bones to silver and the hair to lapis lazuli.
Ancient Egyptians used lapis, in powdered form for their dramatically-applied eye cosmetic mesdemet
. One of their most prized beauty aids, we know it as
kohl
, an Arabic word meaning, "to brighten the eyes."
Written about 1240 BC, the
Book of the Dead
is the name given to a group of mortuary spells written on sheets of papyrus covered with magical texts and accompanying illustrations. These were placed with the dead in order to help them pass through the dangers of the underworld and attain a blissful afterlife.
"Ma'at represented the proper interaction among all inhabitants of the universe, mortal and divine; the basis of the Egyptian social order; and the right order of things in heaven, on earth, and in the afterlife. Ma'at was considered necessary to the preservation of the universe from the chaos that surrounded it..." (Brooklyn Museum, "Gods & Goddesses) Ma'at's Sumerian counterpart was 'Me,' representing a metaphysical explanation of what kept "cosmic entities" and cultural phenomena, once created, operating continuously and harmoniously without conflict or confusion." |
blue as the nile
As a prosperous city-state of Sumer, Ur had developed a thriving trade in lapis as early as the fourth millennium BC, shipping much of its product to Egypt, a country who knew the stone as khesbed or khshdj which meant "joy and delight."
lion-headed eagle pendant, ca. 2400-2250 bc; "treasure of ur," lapis, gold, bitumen, & copper alloy The Egyptians would have purchased their lapis at a town known to them as Tefrer which has been identified by Egyptologists as the ancient city of Sippar in Mesopotamia (present day Abu Habbah, Iraq), situated near the Euphrates River.
Ostensibly an amuletic stone, lapis was worn primarily to provide its wearers with good luck and ward off evil spirits and injury. But there is no doubt, given lapis lazuli's extraordinary role in Egyptian artistic endeavors -- its common coupling with gold, as well as its role in the elaborate preparations for the afterlife -- that it was also highly valued and prized for its beauty, making it a favorite stone with which to adorn the body in this life.
clasp of a bracelet of princess khnumet; eye of horus The Eye of Horus was believed to ward off sickness and bring the dead to life, which is why it was often placed in the wrappings of mummies over the incision where the embalmers had removed the internal organs.
It was also common practice to place a lapis amulet, engraved with a chapter of the Book of the Dead, over the area where the heart had been removed, prior to the sealing of the sarcophagus.
life-giving lapis
Lapis lazuli was thought to possess life-giving powers in ancient Egypt. The Book of the Dead describes Horus, the hawk-like son of the God Osiris destroying all evil. After his deed he appears in the heavenly firmament in the form of a hawk and his torso is made of "blue stone." 
pendant in the form of a hathoric head, 22nd dynasty reign of osorkon ii (874-850 bc) Both lapis and its color were associated with the night sky. The rising sun was sometimes called the "child of lapis lazuli." The stone and the color were also were associated with the primordial waters. The Nile -- arguably the single most important element of ancient Egypt -- is rendered in blue color on grave paintings so blue is thought to represent fertility. Blue colored hippopotamuses produced by artisans were popular as symbols for the life-giving river. It was also said that the gods had hair made of lapis lazuli. In a tomb painting of the Opening of the Mouth ceremony, depictions of both the mummy and Anubis are shown with blue hair. 
scarab heart pectoral As the goddess of truth, balance and order -- a concept fundamental to Egyptian life and the rule of the Pharaohs who portrayed themselves constantly as "Beloved of Ma'at" and "upholders of the universal order" -- the goddess is said to have had a strong association with law codes and practice, but this conclusion is based on just one speculative instance (known as the the 'Saite example') and is thought not to be generally true.
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Even though many translations of the Bible use the term sapphire
, it's more properly known as sapphirus
.To the ancient Hebrews, lapis lazuli was the symbol of success, capturing the blue of the heavens (lazurite) and combining it with the glitter of gold in the sun (pyrite).There is ample evidence that the transparent gem sapphire
that we know today was unknown in Biblical times.The 'tablets' on which Moses received the 'Tables of the Law' -- the Ten Commandments -- from God on Mount Sinai were said to be written on lapis. |
sapphire or sapphirus?
Popular with another Middle Eastern people, the Israelites, lapis is generally acknowledged by Biblical scholars to be one of the breastplate stones of the High Priest ("...and in the second row a turquoise, a sapphire, and an emerald...") It's also noted as a foundation stone of the New Jerusalem (Revelations).
Rabbi Dr. Michael Samuel, in his "Breastplate stones and tribal affiliations," cites discussion and differences regarding the identity of the ancient sapphirus:
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Much like lapis mining in Afghanistan, lapis mines in the Chilean Andes -- at an altitude of up to 14,000 feet -- can only be worked during the summer months due to the extreme weather and altitude conditions.
Overall, Chile's lapis -- the only gem for which it is noted -- is considered inferior to that of Afghanistan, having much more calcite which lowers the value.The Moche are noted for their elaborate painted ceramics and pottery, goldwork and irrigation systems.
Although Chimu pottery never achieved the artistic quality of the Moche, their fortress-like towns are considered a masterpiece of military engineering. |
lapis in latin america
photo: pre-columbian art 
gold head bead with lapis eyes; chimu, royal tombs of sipan, northern peru; ca. 300 ad |
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Prester
is derived from the French Prêtre, meaning "both priest and king."
It was said that Prester John, after observing an ordination service for priests, undertaken with much devotion, was inspired "to be associated with them...[taking] the name John, the first priest that came out of the church."
Like many endeavors in the late Middle Ages, religion was a major motivation for the fifteenth century Portuguese explorations along the coast of Africa. Henry the Navigator was seeking to reunite European Christianity with the "Christian kingdom of Prester John, known to have survived in isolation for approximately a thousand years in Ethiopia."
The name "Abyssinia" (once used for Ethiopia) comes from a corruption of the Arabic word habesh. Marco Polo mistakenly used the name Abash to denote a "very large province that constitutes Middle India."
Moslems apparently believed Prester John existed, also, and were said to be "generally terrified of the thought that one day [he] was going to rouse his armies and march westwards to recapture the Holy Lands for the Christians."
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priest king, prester john
Back in medieval Europe, lapis increasingly became identified as an emblem of chastity. Starting sometime in the twelfth century, troubadours began telling tales of a legendary eastern priest-king, Presbyter John or Prester John, believed to be the Christian king of an idealized Christian stronghold, who remained chaste by sleeping on a bed of sapphirus -- even though he had multiple wives.
In a text attributed to "Sir John Mandeville," written ca. 1366, the priest-king's life is ruled by abstinence:
At times said to be located somewhere in central Asia, in the midst of pagans and closely associated with China -- or at other times to be somewhere in the hinterlands of Abyssinia, possibly Gondar -- from the fourteenth century on, Prester John's mythical kingdom was increasingly identified with Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and the Coptic Christian rulers of that nation were said to be his descendents.
abyssinia, home of the mythical prester john
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Timid children were given necklaces of lapis beads that they might develop courage and fearlessness. For adults, lapis amulets dispelled melancholia and fortified their fidelity to friends and family.
Cures attributed to lapis included the healing of shin affections, apoplexy and disorders of the blood.
Lapis was also thought to free the soul from error, envy and fear as well as protect the wearer from evil. |
power stone of the middle ages
In addition to its power to effect chastity, lapis was the "power stone" of the Middle Ages in other ways.
Thought to confer ability, success, divine favor, and ancient wisdom as well as cure sore throats, according to William Rowland, translator of The Complete Chemical Dispensatory in the 1600's, lapis:
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Ultramarine is the most complex of all the mineral pigments.
Artists used ultramarine mainly where extremely vivid colors were needed, in particular to illuminate manuscripts and Italian panel paintings.
Before an alternative lapis source became available (from Lake Baikal in Siberia) around 1800, natural ultramarine was prohibitively expensive. A price list of gems in the eighteenth century, using the emerald as the unit of value, ranked the sapphire as twice, the ruby as thrice, and the lapis as fifteen times as costly.
When synthetically manufactured pigment (made of sodium salt, alumina, silica and sulphur) became available in the 1820s, the price dropped.
eonardo da Vinci, Fra Angelico and Albrecht D�rer, among others, used the lapis-based ultramarine pigment, also known as "blue gold," in their work and it is still prized by artists today.The first noted use of lapis lazuli as a pigment can be seen in the sixth- and seventh-century AD cave paintings in Afghanistan temples, near the most famous source of the mineral.
Catherine-Th�r�se de Matignon Thorigny (1662 - 1699) married Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Colbert (1651 - 1690), Marquis de Seignelay in 1679. He was the eldest son of the great Colbert (1619-1683), Minister for the Navy and immensely wealthy. The marriage produced five sons (one or two of whom are in the painting). The Marquise de Seignelay and Two of her Children , oil on canvas, 1691; National Gallery, London |
the pricey pigment
Used as a pigment most extensively in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the secret behind some of the most beautiful Renaissance-inspired paintings was ground lapis lazuli. Florentine painter Cennino Cennini (1370-1440), author of a craftsman's manual ca. 1390, describing painter's pigments and how they might be obtained, made and used, said:
ground ultramarine, finished product Science writer, Philip Ball explains:
revenge, best served cold
Catherine-Th�r�se de Matignon (1662 - 1699), Marquise de Lonray, veuve de Seignelay, instructed the painter Pierre Mignard (1612-1695) -- First Painter to Louis XIV -- to portray her as the sea-nymph Thetis. The Marquise had been widowed the year before the portrait and cruel court gossips had spread word that she was bankrupt, ruined, through at court. The painting's brilliant effect depends in large measure on the vast expanse of Thetis' best ultramarine-blue cloak, contrasting wonderfully with the coral and pearls in the Marquise's hair, as well as the mauves and greens of Achilles' garments. Ultramarine was the costliest of pigments, more expensive than gold itself and for that reason seldom used by this date, and never in such quantities. Thus did Mme de Seignelay confound the rumors put about by 'mauvaises langues' (wicked gossips) that she was financially destitute. |
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At the World's Columbia Exposition of 1893, held in Chicago, the Russian exhibition displayed reproductions of two vases -- one of lapis-lazuli and the other of malachite -- that resided in the royal palace in St. Petersburg at the time. Created in the Imperial Lapidary Works, each was about four feet high and valued at $10,000 (in 1893).
The Winter Palace was built in 1754-1762 for Empress Elisabeth (1709-1762), a daughter of Peter the Great (1672-1725). She died before its completion and so never lived in it.The Winter Palace, together with four more buildings, now houses the 2.7 million exhibits of the Hermitage Museum.The Catherine Palace, built for Catherine the Great (1729-1796) and located in the small suburb of Pushkin (formerly Tsarskoe Selo) -- about twelve miles outside St. Petersburg -- has extensive lapis paneling as well as a lapis tabletop widely touted as "the largest in the world." Another palace, the Pavlosk, about thirteen miles outside of St. Petersburg, is known for its lapis fireplaces.Although lapis lazuli had been mined for millennia in Afghanistan, Catherine supported geological research that ultimately led to the discovery of deposits of lapis in Siberia, near Lake Baikal and in the Pamir Mountains of Central Asia around 1785.
St. Isaac's Cathedral is sometimes called "the museum of colored stone." Forty-three varieties of Russian decorative stone have been used in its interior and exterior.
St. Isaac of Dalmatia, whose memorial day (May 30 - Old Style) coincided with Peter the Great's birthday became the patron saint of the Romanovs. |
lapis in the palace
Like labradorite, lapis lazuli's unique blue has made it a favorite architectural stone. Nowhere has it been more popular than in color-mad Russia where the bright blue stone has been used extensively in palaces, cathedrals, and public works in St. Petersburg and Moscow, often paired with bright green malachite.
russian mosaic
Russian craftsmen evolved a novel method of using thin layers of minerals such as lapis lazuli or malachite called "Russian mosaic." Both lapis and malachite, which usually occur as huge boulders, were cut into thin slabs that would then be carefully fit together. Used to cover large surfaces, craftsmen were so skilled the end result gave an impression of solid stone. This method was used to decorate many mantel-pieces in the Pavlovsk Palace, the Malachite Room in the St Petersburg Winter Palace, paneling and tables in the Catherine Palace, the columns of the iconostasis in St Isaacs's Cathedral and a great number of excellent malachite vases now in the Hermitage Museum. One of the most splendid buildings in St. Petersburg is the magnificent Baroque-style Winter Palace on the bank of the Neva River, home to a series of czars until the Russian Revolution in 1917. Containing 1,786 doors; 1,945 windows; and 1,057 halls and rooms, the palace's stunning interior is gilded with tons of lapis, jasper, malachite and marble.
st. isaacs
two lapis columns in between larger malachite columns Once St. Petersburg's main church, St. Isaac's was designed to accommodate 14,000 standing worshipers and is the second largest church in Russia. (The recently rebuilt Church of Christ the Savior in Moscow is now larger but St. Isaac's is still the fourth largest single-domed cathedral in the world.) |
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Built in 1935 at the front gate to Red Square, the Moskva was the first great edifice in Stalin's grandiose new master plan for the Soviet capital. The Moskva has been called "a monument to the Soviet dream".In his autobiography Harper of Heaven, based on his tours of Russia in 1938 and 1940, Robert Service said about the Moscow Metro: "Yes, [it] is the finest thing of its kind in the world. No two stations are the same. Each vies with the other in gorgeousness. Here is a sight almost to be compared with the Palaces of Pushkin and the Hermitage. And above all it is a Soviet achievement. All Russia is proud of it. New stations are continually being opened, even more marvelous than the old. Soon in their surpassing splendor they will be adorned with crystal and silver, ivory amber and precious stone-gaudy temples to the grinning gods of proletariat progress."
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stalin's soviet dream
Four hundred and thirty five miles to the east, in Moscow, is the 1930's art-deco wonder, the Moskva Hotel. Its mammoth restaurant, designed to seat 1,172 guests, is supported by a huge number of columns, each completely covered with either bright green malachite or dark blue lapis.
Unfortunately, for the historically minded, the Moskva, created as "a new wonder of the world" during the Stalinist period, is being gutted and renovated and there is no guarantee as to what will remain.
the people's palaces
Moscow's rightly world-famous underground Metro -- a grand paean to Russia's own natural-stone materials, executed with art-deco elegance and grace -- is more reminiscent of an Emperor's palace than a public works project; in fact, its stations, each with its own theme, have been called "the people's palaces." Opening its first thirteen-station line in 1935, the Metro displays the best of Soviet architecture and design. The Ploschad Revolutsii (Revolution Place) Station which opened in March 1938, has seventy-six larger-than-life bronze statues of soldiers, workers and collective farm workers set back in niches among its malachite- and lapis-faced columns and pillars. |
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A long-established source of liquidity in the desperately poor country, its government has traditionally hoarded the best lapis from its mines as an Afghan version of "Fort Knox."
At the time the theft was discovered, approximately two-thirds of the original stash of thirty tons remained in the palace coffers -- but it's of such a significantly lower-grade that its value is only about 10% of that which was stolen.
It's thought that the missing lapis was probably smuggled out of the country to Peshawar, Pakistan, where it disappeared into Namak Mandi, the old salt market and jewelry market in Peshawar.
From the Namak Mandi, dealers move smuggled lapis and smaller quantities of Afghan emeralds, rubies and sapphires onto the world market. |
vanished from the vaults
Meanwhile, not that distant yet worlds away, lapis is one of the few assets of a cash-strapped quasi-government in Afghanistan.
old building in the namak mandi Among the prime suspects in the theft are the Taliban, who fled Kabul ahead of U.S. ground troops in November 2001, and the Northern Alliance who raced to the capital on their heels, in their bid for power.
One of the biggest challenges to Karzai's weak government will be to gain control of lapis mines belonging to the state -- but which are now in the hands of regional warlords and their heavily armed militias. The warlords are thought to pocket up to a minimum of $5 million a year from sales of Afghanistan's ancient blue stone.
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- abalone
- almandine garnet
- amber
- amethyst
- ametrine
- apatite
- aquamarine
- boulder opal
- calcite
- carnelian
- chalcedony
- chrysoprase
- cinnabar
- citrine
- coral
- druse
- fire opal
- fluorite
- fossilized shell
- garnet
- green garnet
- hematite
- hessonite
- iolite
- jasper
- labradorite
- lapis lazuli
- malachite
- milky quartz
- moldavite
- moonstone
- mother-of-pearl
- obsidian
- onyx
- opal-common
- paua
- peridot
- peruvian opal
- prehnite
- pyrite
- quartz
- rose quartz
- rutilated quartz
- serpentine
- shells
- smoky quartz
- tanzanite
- tourmalinated quartz