Blue Lapis has been used since ancient times and remains popular today. This gemstone has been prized for its bright, blue color and used for inlay and intarsia as well as for pigments for cosmetics and paintings. Its contrast and eye appeal is irresistible. Today, jewelry is its predominant use. Blue Lapis value is determined almost exclusively by color. A deep, intense, blue with violet tones would be at the apex. Fine grained, uniform specimens can attain a smooth, highly polished surface not seen in lower grades. So Lapis Lazuli is the quintessentially blue gemstone, the one you see decorating the tombs of Egyptian mummies, covering the gates of Babylonian cities, adorning the rings, bracelets and necklaces of Roman nobility and starring in exhibitions of ancient artifacts in museums around the world. Lapis Lazuli has been mined in the mountains of Afghanistan and Tajikistan for thousands of years and this area is still the main source of this precious gemstone. Large deposits are found in the Andes Mountains of Chile, it is not as highly regarded as Afghanistan Lapis Lazuli but commonly used around the world.