The largest sapphire mines are in Australia, New South Wales and Queensland. With this, the sapphire was also believed to help protect against sorcery. Sapphires were favoured by sorcerers too as they enabled them to understand the most obscure oracles. During the same period, people also wore sapphires to overpower negative thoughts. The gems were also meant to protect the wearer from envy, ill-wishing and attract divine attention, preserve chastity, and discover fraud and treason. Throughout history, the 12th-century kings wore sapphires around their necks to protect themselves from harm. Numerous religions have applied some significance to the sapphire gems.
The Greeks used to wear a sapphire for wisdom at Delphi when seeking answers from the Oracle at Apollo's shrine, the Buddhists believed it helps to bring spiritual enlightenment, and the Hindus considered it to be one of the "great gems" to use for temple offerings while worshipping. The Law given to Moses on the Mount was believed to be engraved in tablets of sapphire, and in Hebrew lore, both King Solomon and Abraham also wore talismans of the gem. The sapphire is considered the holy stone of the Catholic Church, and many other religions also believed it to represent the heavens.
Since 800 BC, Persians believed that the blue sky was the reflection of sapphire stones. The second-largest sapphire at present is the 423 carats (85 g) Logan sapphire which is kept in the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC Historyįor centuries, sapphires have been considered essential and mystical gems. The association may come from the blue sapphire's historical importance within several religions.
While sapphire is usually considered blue, it comes in a collection of colours, with blue merely being its most common one. The word sapphire is derived from the Latin word "saphirus" and the Greek word "sapheiros" meaning blue. Sapphire is the name given to all the gemstones found in the Corundum mineral series, apart from the red variety called Rubies. Corundum mineral is the second hardest mineral on earth, just after diamond.