SRI LANKA ~Ratnapura-Gem Pits~

I never knew that in Sri Lanka... rightly called "The Pearl of the Indian Ocean"... you also could find real "gems"... Thanks a lot Ravindra for this great and interesting postcard...Learned again something new about your beautiful island!!

With a lovely variety of stamps!

Literally translated, Ratnapura means ‘city of gems’. World famous for its high quality sapphires, it is set like a gem itself in a panorama of glorious scenery. Here visitors can witness gem mining firsthand and the dangers miners go through to find the perfect stone. Most miners still rely on ‘lady luck’ to guide them through their digging, sifting, washing and sorting of the stones and very little modern technology is used here in the mines. In private gem museums collections from all over the world can be seen alongside collections of all gem stones (rubies, sapphires, cat's-eye, alexandrite, emeralds, aquane and zirone) found in Sri Lanka as well as some pre-historic relics collected from the gem pits in the Ratnapura district.

Among the famous Sri Lankan gems acclaimed for their beauty and value, in recent times, were the 400 carat Blue Sapphire called "Blue Belle" which adorns the British Crown, and the beautiful star sapphire misnamed the "Star of India" on permanent display in the Museum of Natural History in New York.