What is Lapis?
Lapis lazuli (pronounced /ˈlæpɪs ˈlæz(j)ʊlaɪ/ or /ˈlæzjʊli/ LAP-iss LAZ-yu-lye/lee[1]) (sometimes abbreviated to lapis) is a relatively rare, semi-precious stone that is prized since antiquity for its intense blue color. Lapis lazuli has been mined in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan for over 6,000 years, and trade in the stone is ancient enough for lapis jewelry to have been found at Predynastic Egyptian sites, and lapis beads at neolithic burials in Mehrgarh, the Caucasus, and even as far from Afghanistan as Mauritania.[2] Lapis takes an excellent polish and can be made into jewelry, carvings, boxes, mosaics, ornaments and vases. In architecture it has been used for cladding the walls and columns of palaces and churches. It was also ground and processed to make the pigment ultramarine for tempera paint and, more rarely, oil paint. Its usage as a pigment in oil paint ended in the early 19th century as a chemically identical synthetic variety, often called French Ultramarine, bec
