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ARMENIAN MINIATURES IN STONES

In Armenia, a country of stones "Karastan", all kinds of stones known in the world are met. There are more than eight hundred deposits. Since ancient times Armenia was famous for its monumental constructions as well as for processing of precious stones. Very rich collections of beautiful decorations made of agates, serdolike, chalcedone, garnet, amber can be met in the museums of Armenia. This collections date to III-I centuries before our era. Different kinds of metals and stones had been exported from Armenia to Ancient Egypt, Aravia, Europe.

Among the great variety of half precious stones agates are very famous. However among the great variety of agates which we meet, landscape agates are unsurpassed. There are unique landscape agate collections in many famous museums of the world and they are exposed side by side with diamond, ruby, emerald. One can see on landscape agates pictures created by nature and such stones are valued very high. Thus, Pliny the Senior described an agate, which belonged to the king Pirru, where one can see "The nine muses and Appolon with his lyre".

Taking into consideration the harmony of colors, the beauty, extraordinarily of pictures, landscape agates are considered to be the best in the world by experts on stones.


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