Lapis lazuli has been mined from the same Afghan mountains for 6,000 years — and the pigment made from it, ultramarine, was worth more than gold in the Renaissance.
Short for lapis lazuli, a deep blue semi-precious stone prized since antiquity for jewelry and as a source of the pigment ultramarine.
From Latin lapis (stone) + Medieval Latin lazulī, from Arabic لازورد (lāzaward, blue stone, lapis lazuli), from Persian لاجورد (lājevard), from the place name Lajward, a region in northeastern Afghanistan where the stone was mined. Key roots: lapis (Latin: "stone"), lājevard (Persian: "blue stone (from place name)").
Lapis lazuli has been mined from the same source — the Sar-i Sang mines in Badakhshan, Afghanistan — for over 6,000 years, making it one of the longest continuously exploited mineral resources in human history. The word azure also derives from the same Persian root as lazuli. When ground into pigment, lapis lazuli produces ultramarine — literally "beyond the sea" — which was the most expensive pigment in Renaissance