Jewelry Articles

How Tanzanite Was Discovered

One day in 1967, a Masai tribesman named Ali Juuyawatu was walking along the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro in northern Tanzania when he found a stone. Perhaps he stubbed his toe on the rock or maybe its unusual color caught his eye, history doesn’t tell us that. We do know that this Masai warrior made history that day; he had discovered Tanzanite! To this day, this rare member of the zoisite group of minerals has been found in only one place on earth: a five-square mile hilltop near Arusha, Tanzania. In fact, Kilimanjaro International Airport is just ten miles north of where this rare gem is mined.