Emerald

Coming soon!

Queen Cleopatra's favorite gemstone was [|emerald], even to the extent where she gifted foreign dignities emeralds carved in her likeness. Emeralds were mined locally near the Red Sea. Egypt held the monopoly on emeralds till the 16th century.

Egypt is where the worlds first emerald mine is located, in the mountain valley of Wadi Sikait in the Eastern Desert. It was mined as early as the Ptolemaic period. The Romans later referred to emeralds as Smaragdus, and named the Sikait region Mons Smaragdus, or Emerald Mountain. Another site was Wadi Gamal, near Marsa Alam, which latter earned the name Cleopatra's Emerald Mine.

- Sikair-Zubara region in the eastern part of Upper Egypt, near the [|Red Sea]

Contrary to popular beliefs and commercial propaganda, before the [|Ptolemaic Period] emeralds were unknown in Egypt, and have no special symbolic meaning in mythology