Nestled deep in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania lurks a gemstone 1,000 times rarer than diamond. Its spectrum of colour ranges from royal purple, to soft lilac, to deep cobalt. Its only known source in the world is the above. Its name is tanzanite.
As a girl who likes her jewellery, I was gripped by this stone from the second I heard about it. Unfortunately, as I’m also a girl who is living on an exceedingly tight budget making her way around Africa, this was something that would I would not be able to afford. But I did find the next best thing, in the way of the Tanzanite Experience, a museum dedicated to the precious commodity, located in Arusha, which I made arrangements to visit.
Hotel rooms in Tanzania are usually pretty good for what you pay, and my Tanzania accommodation guide pointed me to the Mount Meru Hotel, which proved no exception to the rule. Sitting at the foot of Mount Meru, the fifth highest peak in Africa, the hotel was modern, spacious and had one of the most majestic backdrops I think I’ve ever seen.
But I digress.
The Tanzanite Experience was a great one and well worth the money. The company’s mission statement is to: “Create a greater awareness of rare and precious tanzanite through tourism in Tanzania,” and I can confirm that the mission has been accomplished.
The tour begins in an auditorium, where you watch a video which outlines the history of the stone (amazingly it was only discovered in 1967) and then moves on to how the mineral is extracted from the metamorphic rock in which it is found. Tanzanite is a reddish brown in its natural state, but when exposed to temperatures of 600 °C the beautiful colours emerge and make it translucent.
After the video, you can wander around the museum at your own leisure, and discover how the stone is cut to ensure the best results. Also you are taught the criteria by which the stone is graded.
All of this was enough to make me want more, so I then booked on to a tour that took me to the mine in which tanzanite is extracted. Although the mine is 70 kilometres from Arusha, it was well worth the effort and proved to be a fascinating experience that hinged more on the adventurous side of things, rather than the theoretical. My group was taken down an actual mine shaft and an expert guide explained the nature of tanzanite in a geological context. He also clarified that the mining was an ethical and environmentally responsible process, which helped quell my initial misgivings.
As with the museum back in Arusha, there was a small shop that sold the stone, but tempted as I was, I decided that food and a bed for the night was more important than a pretty necklace.
My experience with tanzanite was yet another reminder that Tanzania is a country full of surprises, and as long as it continues to surprise me, I will remain a happy traveller.