Lapis lazuli (also just called “lapis”) is a metamorphic rock that’s been highly valued and considered almost magical for thousands of years. It’s a brilliant blue stone that was first mined, and still is, in a remote part of Afghanistan. Lapis mines also now exist in other countries, such as Russia, Chile, Italy, and Canada, but none of them are as famous as the original. Its unusual name comes from the Latin word for stone (like the word lapidary) and the Persian word for blue. It’s so blue that in the Middle Ages it was crushed into powder to make the paint color called ultramarine (really blue!), which is used in many famous paintings from that time. Although it’s mostly blue, lapis actually includes several minerals that are not blue. Its main ingredient is the mineral lazurite, which is blue and contains sodium (Na), like another bright blue mineral, sodalite. But other ingredients include calcite and pyrite, and usually small amounts of still other minerals are mixed in.