Why This Rock Was More Expensive Than Gold

The CIA might have supplied the missiles, but this rock supplied the army.

For 6,000 years, Lapis Lazuli was the only way to make the color blue. It was literally worth more than gold. But the story of this stone isn't just about Art History—it's about the world's first global supply chain that stretched from the remote mountains of Afghanistan to the paintbrush of Michelangelo.

In this video, we trace the "Blood Diamond" history of the color blue. From bankrupted Renaissance artists to the Soviet-Afghan war, this is how a single geological monopoly shaped empires, fueled insurgencies, and held the art world hostage for millennia.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 - The 6,000-Year Monopoly
0:44 - Why Blue is Chemically "Expensive"
1:50 - The Sumerians & The First Security Key
2:16 - King Tut’s Supply Chain Problem
3:02 - The "Supply Chain from Hell" (Afghanistan to Venice)
4:21 - The Vendecolori (Color Sellers)
5:12 - Bankrupting Michelangelo
6:07 - The Invention That Crashed the Market
7:20 - The Black Market (CIA & Massoud)
9:02 - The Taliban's "Blood Diamond"
9:37 - The Geopolitics of Supply Chains

ABOUT THE CHANNEL:

I’m Ahmed Zaidi, and I track the history and geopolitics of supply chains. I look at how scarce resources—from ancient pigments to modern minerals—shape maps, start wars, and define the global economy.

#History #Geopolitics #ArtHistory #LapisLazuli #SupplyChain #Economics #Documentary