Discovered in 1967 on the Merelani Hills in northern Tanzania. Its mineral name is zoisite, but Tiffany & Co. named it "tanzanite" and launched it to market. Kunzite, morganite—Tiffany has named others before.

Found at this single location and nowhere else. At the foot of Kilimanjaro, within a stretch of just a few kilometres. Geologists estimate the deposit may be exhausted within a generation.

It is pleochroic—shifting between blue, violet, and reddish-brown depending on angle. Three colours in one stone. And that stone exists at only one point on Earth.