My first encounter with Lapis Lazuli was this summer, in a book called Color: A natural history of the palette by Victoria Finlay. Victoria Finlay was the first woman to visit the 7,000 year old lapis mine in Afghanistan (Sar-e-sang), which is the world's main source of Lapis Lazuli. Marco polo said of the area, "“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 mine's territory is treacherous: snow covered, steep, scorching summers, there are no roads, i've read that some of the mine's require a day's ride on horse back. But the blue is so dazzling that it is well worth the discomfort, toil and risk.

In the ancient art history course I took last quarter, we looked at Near Eastern groups who used the blue gem, and how the Virgin Mary had to be painted in Lapis Lazuli because it was the most precious, the rarest, most valuable color.

This morning when I was reading in Exodus, this verse jumped out at me:

Exodus 24:10 "and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, clear as the sky itself"


If anyone is interested in the blue or colors of any sort, they should really read the aforementioned book. After today I think i'm going to indulge in a second helping of it.