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According to astrologers, the wearer of the peridot will enjoy happiness in marriage, the power of eloquence in speech and enduring freedom from insecurity - both emotional and physical.
The Romans called peridot "evening emerald," since its green colour did not darken at night but was still visible by lamp light. Peridot was also often used to decorate medieval churches, probably carried back to Europe by the crusaders. Large peridots, more than 200 carats in size, adorn the shrine of the three magi at the Cologne Cathedral.
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Peridot (pronounced pear-uh-doe) is a French word derived from the Arabic faridat, which means gem. The stone ranges in colour from light yellow-green to the intense bright green of new grass or olive. Because of the way peridot splits and bends the rays of light passing through it, it has a velvety, "sleepy" appearance - a shining rich glow. 
Ancient Egyptians called peridot "the gem of the sun," although they believed its seekers might not find it in sunlight. Because of their brightness in the desert sun, the stones were supposedly invisible by daylight. In darkness, however, they were alleged to give off a light of their own. By night miners were said to mark their locations accordingly and return to recover their treasures by day. 
Peridot, the birthstone of August, is born in fire. Small crystals of peridot are often found in the rocks created by volcanoes and also can be found in meteors that fall to earth! A few samples of extraterrestrial peridot have even been faceted into gems! Because the iron which creates the colour is an integral part of its structure, it is found only in green, ranging from a summery light yellowish green to bottle green.
Peridot was mined in ancient Egypt on an island called Zeberget. Mining was done at night because legend said that peridot could not be easily seen during the day. The island was infested with serpents which made peridot mining a very dangerous occupation until a Pharoh finally had them all driven into the sea.
Today most peridots are mined by Native Americans in Arizona on the San Carlos Reservation. Fine large peridots are found in Myanmar (formerly Burma) and is also mined in China and Sri Lanka. In 1994, an exciting new deposit of peridot was discovered in Pakistan, and these stones are among the finest ever seen. The new mine is located 15,000 feet above sea level in the Nanga Parbat region in the far west of the Himalaya Mountains in the
Pakistani part of Kashmir. This new discovery, combined with fashion's passion for lime green, has revived interest in peridot and increased the popularity of this gemstone. 
Although peridot is treasured in Hawaii as the goddess Pele's tears, almost all of the peridot sold in Hawaii today is from Arizona, even though it is produced by Hawaii's volcanoes. The island of Oahu even has beaches made out of olivine grains but unfortunately they are much too small to cut into
peridot!
As a medical remedy, it was powdered to cure asthma. Holding a peridot under the tongue was supposed to lessen the thirst of a person suffering from fever. Peridot had the power to drive away evil spirits and the power was considered to be even more intense when the stone was set in gold. It was also said to strengthen the power of any medicine drunk from goblets carved from the gemstone.
Archaeologists have found valuable peridots in Alexandria, Egypt, which must have come from the original source, the island of Zebargad (zebargad being the Arabic word for peridot). It is located about 50 miles from the coast of Egypt in the Red Sea. Faceted stones have also been found in the ruins of ancient Greece and attributed to the same source. The treasure was kept secret from the western world for centuries - from Biblical times until the seventeenth century. The mines were very active from 1906 until world War I and II. 
The largest known faceted peridot (310 carats) is displayed at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Now a part of the Diamond Treasury in Moscow, Russia, is a yellowish-green 192.75-carat stone which belonged to the czars. A step-cut peridot of 146 carats is in the Geological Museum, London, England. The collections of the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Chicago Museum of Natural History have included beautiful examples of
peridot.
