The world’s largest emerald with a legend to match is displayed for the first time in Colombia, the country where it was found.
The 15,000 carat, deep green emerald weighing over 4 pounds is on display in Colombia for the first time at the country’s international mineral exhibition which will be held in Bogota’s Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada convention center until Sunday June 19.
The emerald, which was found in the central Boyaca department over 12 years ago has been displayed in different parts of the world but never in Colombia because of security conditions reported Santiago Soto a spokesman for the Minergemas 2011 mineral exhibition.
The rock named “Fura” by the Muzo indigenous inhabitants of the central Boyaca department, “has not been divided because it would lose its value,” said Soto who went on to say, “This is a unique stone in the world. It is very difficult or almost impossible to find another similar stone … and I cannot tell you how much it is worth.”
The Legend
According to the Muzo indigenous people, a long time ago a beautiful queen named Fura reigned with her husband over the peaceful, fruitful land of of Muzo, in what is today the central Boyaca department.
One day a man named Chisgo with blonde hair and blue eyes arrived in Muzo and pretended to fall in love with Fura in order to steal her land and her riches. The queen whimsically fell in love with the white man and when her God found out about her affair he turned her into a stone.
Her husband, who was still madly in love with Fura, pleaded that he too be transformed into a stone so he could lay beside his wife. The God did so. Fura was grief stricken seeing her husband in this form and began to shed tears. They ran along her stony body turning it a deep green. Over the years her anguish built, she cried more and the tears sank deeper into her rocky skin turning her a deeper emerald green.
The indigenous inhabitants of Muzo named two mountain peaks in the emerald rich area, Fura and Tena, after the two stony tribal leaders from their culture’s folklore.