Originating from the Persian word for the gem, lāžward,[1] lapis lazuli is a rock composed primarily of the minerals lazurite, pyrite and calcite.

[8] By the end of the Middle Ages, lapis lazuli began to be exported to Europe, where it was ground into powder and made into the pigment ultramarine.

Ultramarine was used by some of the most important artists of the Renaissance and Baroque, including Masaccio, Perugino, Titian and Vermeer, and was often reserved for the clothing of the central figures of their paintings, especially the Virgin Mary.

[9] Excavations from Tepe Gawra show that Lapis lazuli was introduced to Mesopotamia approximately in the late Ubaid period, c. 4900–4000 BCE.

Important amounts are also produced from mines west of Lake Baikal in Russia, and in the Andes mountains in Chile which is the source that the Inca used to carve artifacts and jewelry.

Some samples of lapis lazuli contain augite, diopside, enstatite, mica, hauynite, hornblende, nosean, and sulfur-rich löllingite geyerite.

[19] Lapis lazuli is found in limestone in the Kokcha River valley of Badakhshan province in north-eastern Afghanistan, where the Sar-i Sang mine deposits have been worked for more than 6,000 years.

It is mined in smaller amounts in Angola, Argentina, Burma, Pakistan, Canada, Italy, India, and in the United States in California and Colorado.

[13] Lapis takes an excellent polish and can be made into jewellery, carvings, boxes, mosaics, ornaments, small statues, and vases.

Lapis lazuli is commercially synthesized or simulated by the Gillson process, which is used to make artificial ultramarine and hydrous zinc phosphates.

At Karnak, the relief carvings of Thutmose III (1479–1429 BC) show fragments and barrel-shaped pieces of lapis lazuli being delivered to him as tribute.

[citation needed] Because the stone combines the blue of the heavens and golden glitter of the sun, it was emblematic of success in the old Jewish tradition.