Almandine is a type of mineral belonging to the garnet Group. The name is applied by Pliny the Elder to it when it has been found at Alabanda (a town in Caria in Asia Minor ).
Almandine is an iron alumina garnet of deep red color, inclining to purple but it's almost invariably dark in color, and it forms dark red to reddish-brown Garnet gemstone. Almandine is a hard gemstone (7-7.5 Mohs scale), its crystal formula is: Fe3Al2(SiO4)3. The most desirable color of Almandine gemstones is the pure deep red as it's the most valuable one.
