Lapis: from the roof of the world

The Sar-e-Sang mines in Badakhshan have produced lapis lazuli for at least six thousand years, and for most of that time they were the only source on earth. Caravans carried the stone west to Sumer and Egypt, and later to the workshops of Venice, where it was ground into ultramarine — literally 'beyond the sea'.

Good lapis is a deep, even blue flecked with gold pyrite and free of white calcite. Farrukh Nazarov of Pamir Stones buys rough directly from mining families, and cuts in Dushanbe. Every stone on SilkWay is photographed before it ships, because no two are the same.