Garnets are best known for their red color.  They are not just dark red, but come in  an array of exciting colors.  The most well known garnets are pyrope, rhodolite, tsavorite and spessartite.  Garnet (red) is the birthstone for January and all colors are given for the 2nd anniversary.  Garnets were a highly valued gemstone in both ancient Egypt and Rome.  Garnets are said to symbolize friendship, loyalty, and truthfulness.

The name Garnet appears to originate with the Latin granatum malum which means pomegranate. Pomegranate is the name of the bush which produces a red fruit with seeds. Jewelry made with garnet has been found as early as the Bronze Age (3000 BC) in burial sites. It is thought that early communities valued garnet and believed that it offered protections in the afterlife.