On a faceted gem, its bottom or area below the girdle is called the pavilion. The pavilion is critical to how the stone reflects light and in fact, does most of the light reflection. While the pavilion can be cut and faceted in many different styles if it’s not cut at the right angles the stone’s performance will be dramatically diminished. Some of the pavilion styles used today include a modified-scissor cut pavilion, a step-cut pavilion, a princess-cut pavilion, and a round-brilliant cut pavilion.
