Garnet

 Family of silicate quartz rocks with similar crystalline form and physical properties, but different chemical composition. Almandine, pyropion, spersatin, hessonite, chavorite and andradite are the best known garnet stones used in jewellery and decorative art. Its deep red color is the result of the admixture of calcium iron, or calcium aluminum, or calcium chromium, in the silicate rock, depending on the type of garnet.

The word garnet comes from the Latin word granum, which means seed with reference to pomum granatum, the pomegranate. In Ancient Greece it was called anthracite pyropion, meaning something that looks like red-hot coal.

5000 year-old jewellery with polished garnets was found in Egypt. 4300 years ago , in Sumeria local craftsmen made elaborate rings with inlaid garnets. In Athens, the garnet was the stone of negotiators and orators. In Talmud we read about a huge garnet that illuminated Noah's Ark during the Flood. In India we find the rhodolite garnets of Orissa, and Hyderabad. It is the stone of the first chakra, the base, regulating the balance of the limbs, the spine, the genitals and the blood.

Deep red garnet is the official national gemstone of the Czech Republic. Big quantities are mined in Teplice, a small town 63 km northwest of Prague.

It is the stone of January and the zodiac signs that define it are Capricorn, Leo and Virgo.