Diamonds are forever

I had wanted to go to London Tower to see and feel what it was like for Anne Boleyn to be there when she was imprisioned by Henry VIII for adultery. I had forgotten that the Crown Jewels were housed there, and as it turned out, seeing them was the highlight of the tour for me!

As you know when I got engaged I became obsessed with diamonds. What girl doesn't? While I'm far from an expert on diamonds, I had done a little research on famous diamonds, the Koh-i-noor being one. So imagine my surprise when viewing the Crown Jewels, I discovered the koh-i-noor is actually mounted into the Queen Mother's crown?

The Koh-i-noor diamond is an ancient diamond which originates from the the Kings of Persia, the Shahs of Iran and finally from India. It is rumoured to be more than 5000 years old and was once the largest known diamond in the world. It was presented by Duleep Singh, the last Punjabi Maharaja (and he's got a story all of his own) to Queen Victoria in 1851. At the time it was 186 and a half carats in size. HUUUGGGGEEEE! But Prince Albert had it re cut to 106 carats to increase its brillance. It was reduced in size by 42%. And that really makes me want to cry.

Legend tells that it is bad luck for a male to wear the Koh-i-noor, which is why it is in the Queen Mother's crown. When I realised I was seeing the Koh-i-noor, I raced back around to view all the crowns again. In the crown jewels vault, all the crowns are in a special long glass cabinet and there's a moving walk way on either side so that people are forced to move along. On my first pass I was on the side of the Koh-i-noor. On my second pass I was on the other side and got very confused about what I was looking at. So I asked the Yeoman to show me exactly where the Koh-i-noor was and he showed me: it sits on the front of the Queen Mother's crown, above her forehead (when she's wearing it which is never because she's dead, of course).

But then he said "What about the Cullinan? Don't tell me you didn't see that?" and he ever so politely pushed me back towards the front of the case where the Royal Sceptre is on display. And there it was - the biggest freaking diamond I have seen in my life!!! One BIG bead!

The Cullinan I is a whopping 530 carats and is bigger than a golf ball. And that's just one piece of it! It was discovered in 1905 in an above ground mine and was over 3000 carats in the rough! It is known as The Great Star of Africa and was cut into nine different diamonds, another of which is in the crown of Queen Elizabeth II.

To see this diamond was to be spell bound. To say the least! I think I rode the jewel case pass four or five times to take in the spectacular brillance of all the jewels. Go here for more information on the Cullinan. You can find the Koh-i-noor on Wikioedia too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cullinan_Diamond