What do King Tutankhamun, Johannes Vermeer and Minecraft all have in common? If you guessed, Lapis Lazuli, you are a star! This brilliant blue stone which has captured the hearts of people for millennia is found in the eyebrows of Tutankhamun’s funeral mask, the ultramarine paint in Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” and the video game Minecraft to make blue dyes and decorative blocks. For thousands of years, Lapis has been prized for its intensely beautiful colour. The ancient Egyptians associated the stone with the heavens and life-giving powers, using it to decorate sacred paintings, amulets, statues and sarcophagus. Cleopatra even wore powdered Lapis Lazuli for her eye shadow! Lapis was used for seals and jewellery in ancient Mesopotamia and is mentioned several times in the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest surviving pieces of literature in history. As a paint pigment, Lapis was ground into ultramarine and used by some of the greatest artists of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The stone is generally a mix of three minerals: lazurite (which gives it its striking blue colour); calcite (white veins which may run through it), and pyrite (the glittering gold inclusions). Though Lapis occurs in several countries around the world, some of the best and richest coloured specimens come from Afghanistan (as seen above). When one views such incredible examples of Lapis, it’s easy to understand how this semi-precious stone was once valued even more than gold!