Lapis Lazuli

Lapis lazuli is not a single mineral but a rock: a complex aggregate composed primarily of deep-blue lazurite, often mottled with white calcite and brassy flecks of pyrite. Mined in the Sar-e-Sang deposits of Afghanistan for more than six thousand years, lapis was ground into powder by Renaissance artists to create the pigment ultramarine and was used extensively in the burial objects of Egyptian pharaohs.

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