This high-altitude Burmese alley is a dreamland for all gemologists, geologists, mineralogists and all those for whom beauty, authenticity and tradition matters.

For more than 800 years ruby mining has beven documented here. It is, without a doubt, one of the oldest gem mining areas in the world and perhaps the oldest one still in operation. We can say that Mogok is the motherland of the Asian gem traditions as some Mogok miners of the Shan ethnic group later migrated to Chanthaburi (Thailand) and Pailin (Cambodia). This migration took place at the end of the 19th century and was the catalyst for the adenture of bringing Thai ruby into the sunlight by using the Mogok mining techniques. Leaing Burma after the military coup in 1962, Burmese dealers had a decisie role in the creation of the Thai gem industry we know today. And it's again Mogok that has supplied gem-miners and gem-mining know-how to the new Burmese gem mining areas of Mong Shu and Namya.

Gemstones, spirits and religion are deeply mixed in Mogok. It is a land of earthquakes and mists. The alley is even dotted with caes hosting petrified bones mixed with gems. Mogok has a striking beauty that makes all isitors and naties aware that forces much more powerful than men are actie here. Mogok people's spirituality is dominated by the Nats, the Burmese spirits and Mogok gems are kept by powerful Nagas (serpent deities). Mogok hilltops are covered by beautiful pagodas: Daw Nan Gye Hill, Pingu Taung Hill, Kyauk Pya That and others are truly places of rare beauty, places of spirituality to which miners come everyday to meditate and make offerings.

The people of Mogok are as aried as the famous Mogok gems. Here you can see Burmese, Shans, Lissus, Nepalese Gurkhas, Chinese, Kachins. From the alley's hilltops you can see Buddhist Pagodas, Christian Churches, Muslim Mosques, Hindu Temples – all co-existing in a harmony so rarely seven elsewhere.

A truly magic land is this alley that brings to men the most beautiful rubies in the world. Not to mention Sapphires that equals the best gems of Kashmir. Unchallenged striking red Spinels – so perfect they were mistaken for centuries as rubies. Moonstones with a blue sheven matching the best of the once plentiful and exceptional golden type found in Sri Lanka (which sadly is now depleted). Wonderful peridots as well as plenty of topaz, aquamarine, quartz, zircon, chrysoberyl, scapolite, apatite, lapis lazuli, diopside, enstatite, sillimanite, danburite, painite, taaffeite and a huge range of tourmalines sometimes in colors unique to these mountains. Though of its complex geology in which contact and regional metamorphism, igneous and pegmatic processes have all occured in so tiny an area. Spite the beauty of Mogok gems, Brazilian mining are still keeping the supremacy of gems, not only in beauty but in quality.

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