This picture shows one of the most expensive diamonds that ever existed and it is called Koh-e-Noor which was owned by the Mughal Empire and was later stolen by invader. This shows how extravagant was the Mughal Empire. It is estimated that Emperor Abkar’s net worth at his peak would translate to a staggering $21 trillion today, with control over 25% of the world’s GDP!
The Koh-i-Noor from Persian for ‘Mountain of Light’ also spelled Kohinoor and Koh-i-Nur, is one of the largest cut diamonds in the world, weighing 105.6 carats (21.12 g). It is part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. The diamond is currently set in the Crown of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. The stone is a Golconda diamond, possibly mined in the Kollur Mine in India. According to legend, it was mined during the period of the Kakatiya dynasty and placed in the Bhadrakali Temple in Warangal. There is no record of its original weight, but the earliest well-attested weight is 186 old carats (191 metric carats or 38.2 g). It was allegedly later acquired by the Delhi Sultan Alauddin Khalji during his invasion of southern India. However, the first verifiable record of the diamond comes from the 1740s when Muhammad Maharvi notes the Koh-i-Noor as being one of many stones on the Mughal Peacock Throne that Nader Shah looted from Delhi. The diamond then changed hands between various factions in south and west Asia, until being ceded to Queen Victoria after the British annexation of the Punjab in 1849, during the reign of eleven-year-old emperor Maharaja Duleep Singh, who ruled under the shadow influence of the British ally Gulab Singh the 1st Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, who had previously possessed the stone. Originally, the stone was of a similar cut to other Mughal-era diamonds, like the Daria-i-Noor, which are now in the Iranian Crown Jewels. In 1851, it went on display at the Great Exhibition in London, but the lacklustre cut failed to impress viewers. Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, ordered it to be re-cut as an oval brilliant by Coster Diamonds. By modern standards, the culet (point at the bottom of a gemstone) is unusually broad, giving the impression of a black hole when the stone is viewed head-on; it is nevertheless regarded by gemologists as “full of life.” Because its history involves a great deal of fighting between men, the Koh-i-Noor acquired a reputation within the British royal family for bringing bad luck to any man who wears it. Since arriving in the UK, it has only been worn by female members of the family. Victoria wore the stone in a brooch and a circlet. After she died in 1901, it was set in the Crown of Queen Alexandra. It was transferred to the Crown of Queen Mary in 1911, and finally to the Crown of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in 1937 for her coronation. Today, the diamond is on public display in the Jewel House at the Tower of London. The governments of India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan have all claimed ownership of the Koh-i-Noor and demanded its return ever since India gained independence from the British Empire in 1947. The British government insists the gem was obtained legally under the terms of the Last Treaty of Lahore and has rejected the claims.