English: Top left: A specimen of Lapis Lazuli; Lapis Lazuli (Persian/Pashto: Lājvard) is a type of blue semi-precious stone only found in Afghanistan but coveted in the wider world for thousands of years. It crops up in the jewellery of ancient Egypt, the art of the ancient near east and as far afield as the art of the Italian Renaissance.

Bottom left: Lapis lazuli used in Scarab Pectoral, from the Tomb of Tutankhamun, in the Valley of the Kings at Thebes, Anicent Egypt, c. 1361-52 BC.

Right: Lapis lazuli used in "Ram in a Thicket", from the Royal Tombs of Ur, Sumer, Ancient Mesopotamia, modern day Iraq, c. 2600-2500 B.C.