A gem of classical blue beauty, turquoise ("the Turkish stone") has been prized as adornment and sought after as a talisman throughout the ages and all over the world. A complex phosphate of aluminum and copper, which ranges in color from bright blue to green, to gray, turquoise is mined mostly in arid regions with sedimentary and fractured volcanic rocks. The pharaohs of Egypt left inscriptions recording their successful turquoise mining in the Sinai desert, while the Indians of the American Southwest, who considered it a sacred stone, found their sources chiefly in new Mexico and Arizona. Turquoise occurs in a wide area of the near east and Europe, and its use in jewelry and amulets dates from the 5th millennium before Christ. The Egyptians particularly valued it as a harbinger of good luck, in which capacity it is still used throughout the Middle East. In the Americas it was considered an essential possession for a medicine man and was used extensively as adornment, as it still is today. Ancient Indian burial sites have yielded thousands of turquoise beads used to decorate the deceased. Its power as a charm of good fortune is thought to be unrivaled because of its lucky blue color and it is believed to protect the wearer from accidents and falls. Therapeutically, the gem is useful for freeing the body from toxins, preventing arthritis, relieving urinary disorders and curing eye diseases. To wear turquoise is to wear the sky on a bright and sunny day. - (FJ.5494)