Stories & Heritage
Sri Lankan Gem Stories
Two thousand years of gem heritage — from ancient trade routes to the world's greatest museum collections.
The Island of Gems
Marco Polo, visiting in the 13th century, described Ceylon as the finest island of its size in the world — and noted its sapphires, rubies, topazes, and amethysts. Ancient Arab traders called it Serendib, and its gems were traded as far as Rome and China. The name "Ceylon sapphire" carries two and a half millennia of meaning.
The Star of India
The 563-carat Star of India — one of the largest and finest star sapphires in existence — is Sri Lankan. Found over 300 years ago, it now resides at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Its blue-grey colour, perfectly centred star, and near-flawless asterism make it the benchmark against which all star sapphires are measured.
The Stuart Sapphire
Set in the British Imperial State Crown, the Stuart Sapphire is a large oval blue sapphire of Sri Lankan origin. It passed through the hands of multiple European monarchs before being incorporated into the crown in the 19th century — a testament to the enduring prestige of Ceylon sapphires in royal courts.
Ratnapura — City of Gems
The gem-mining capital of Sri Lanka, Ratnapura (literally "city of gems" in Sanskrit), has been the centre of the island's gem trade for over a thousand years. Gem-bearing gravels — called illam — are found in the ancient riverbeds surrounding the city. Artisanal miners still work in the same alluvial deposits their ancestors did generations ago.
