Polished Lapis Lazuli Block, 2.3kg | Badakhshan Afghanistan

Five Pounds, Nine Inches Long: A Polished Lapis Lazuli Block

This polished Lapis Lazuli block from Badakhshan, Afghanistan weighs 2.3 kg, about 5 lb. It’s 24.0 cm long and 12.5 cm wide, about 9.4 × 4.9 inches, and 5.0 cm (2 in) thick. Two inches of thickness makes it a solid block rather than a slab, and it stands steadily on its own.

Blue stone with gold in it

The stone is lazurite in a uniform ultramarine blue, polished to a reflective finish across its main faces. Gold-coloured pyrite shows as veins and clouds through the blue, so the surface has some movement in it. You can see how the pattern changes from piece to piece in our Lapis Lazuli collection.

Where it goes

At 9.4 inches long it works on a desk, a mantelpiece or a gallery shelf, as long as the surface can carry 5 lb. Our polished stone collection has blocks that are wider, thinner or heavier, if you’d like to compare shapes. If this would be your first larger mineral piece, our guide on how to start a mineral collection is a good place to begin, and you’ll find more pieces from Afghanistan and Pakistan in our mineral specimens and crystals collection.