Q 01/05

Which country's Sar-i Sang mines have supplied the world's finest lapis lazuli for more than 6,000 years?

A) Pakistan

B) Tajikistan

C) Turkmenistan

D) Afghanistan

Answer · why

D) Afghanistan

Afghanistan's remote Badakhshan mines fed lapis lazuli to ancient Egypt, China and Rome, carried out of the mountains along caravan routes.

Q 02/05

Which Egyptian pharaoh's gold funeral mask has eyebrows and eye surrounds inlaid with lapis lazuli?

A) Ramesses II

B) Tutankhamun

C) Amenhotep III

D) Akhenaten

Answer · why

B) Tutankhamun

Tutankhamun's mask weighs over 10 kilograms, and its makers set quartz eyes with obsidian pupils inside the lapis lazuli outlines.

Q 03/05

Which prized blue pigment did Renaissance painters make by grinding lapis lazuli into powder?

A) Cobalt blue

B) Prussian blue

C) Ultramarine

D) Cerulean

Answer · why

C) Ultramarine

Ultramarine means 'beyond the sea': Italian traders imported the rock from distant Asian mines, and the paint was at times valued as highly as gold.

Q 04/05

Which Vermeer masterpiece, whose sitter wears a blue and yellow turban, was painted with lapis lazuli pigment?

A) Girl with a Pearl Earring

B) The Art of Painting

C) The Girl with the Wine Glass

D) The Music Lesson

Answer · why

A) Girl with a Pearl Earring

Girl with a Pearl Earring, painted around 1665, hangs in the Mauritshuis in The Hague, where it was long known as Girl with a Turban.

Q 05/05

Which mineral forms the glittering metallic-yellow flecks that sparkle across polished lapis lazuli?

A) Gold

B) Mica

C) Pyrite

D) Copper

Answer · why

C) Pyrite

Pyrite, better known as fool's gold, is welcome in small doses: a light, even scatter of flecks is a mark of top-quality lapis lazuli.