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The Cullinan Diamond
The Cullinan diamond is the biggest diamond which has ever been found. The Cullinan diamond weighs 3,106 carats. The diamond was found in the Premier mine in South Africa in 1905 and was named after the owner of the mine Sir Thomas Cullinan. He was general of the former British colony and gave the diamond to King Edvard VII as a birthday present in 1907.
In Amsterdam the diamond was cut into 105 pieces - in 9 large diamonds and 96 small diamonds. The largest polished diamond from the stone is called Cullinan I or the Great Star of Africa. With its 530.2 carats the Great Star of Africa was the the largest polished diamond in the world until 1985 as the Golden Jubilee diamond with 545.67 carats was discovered.
Today the nine large diamonds of the Cullinan diamond are part of the British crown jewels and are displayed at the Tower of London.
Cullinan I - The Great Star of Africa
The largest polished diamond of the Cullinan diamond, the Great Star of Africa, is pear shaped and weighs 530.2 carats. The diamond is part of the Sceptre with the Cross.
Cullinan II - The Lesser Star of Africa
The Cullinan II diamond is cushion shaped and weighs 317.40 carats. The diamond is in the center-front of the Imperial State Crown of Great Britain.
Rumors around the Cullinan diamond
There are rumors that there was a second half of the Cullinan diamond, as certain signs point to the diamond being part of a larger stone. It is said that the original finder broke off a piece with a size of about 1,500 to 2,000 carats before he sold the stone to Sir Cullinan. If this were true, the original Cullinan diamond would have had the size of about 5,000 carats.
August 29, 2007 @ 11:19 am
Nathon said,
“The Cullinan diamond is the biggest ever found diamond. The Cullinan weighed 3,106 carats and was found in South Africa. There are rumors that the original diamond was even bigger!” Well, yes. It was found. The ones that haven’t been found are the biggest ever diamonds that we haven’t found. What you could have said was the ordinary, perfectly cogent ‘biggest diamond ever found’ instead of trying to be all technical, and sound clever. And, as for the rumours, they are not rumours but sheer inescapable reason; of course the stone from which those pictured were cut - was bigger. For God’s sake.
October 1, 2007 @ 1:42 pm
Andrew said,
Nathon, I am actually concerned you are brain dead! I am pretty sure he incorrectly arranged his words, stating ‘biggest ever found diamond’ rather than ‘biggest diamond ever found’ as opposed to wanting to appear clever. The 2nd point you have completely misred, being not that the cullinan 1 was originally part of a 3k+ carat unpolished stone (quite obvious), but that the 3k+ carat stone might have originally been part of a 5k+ carat unpolished stone, but that only the 3k+ stone was published as having being found. I hope my punctuation or message does not get critisised by another cretin who can’t read or make a reasonable point. And just in case you think I am trying to say i am ’sure pretty’ make sure you re-read the 2nd paragraph again, numpty!!!
October 25, 2007 @ 9:06 pm
Pabs said,
I think the writing may be done by someone who does not speak Enlish as their first language, so perhaps you could ask him what his first language is and try to write in that as well as he writes in English. Just a thought.
November 12, 2007 @ 8:03 am
franky said,
I want to have the photo of “The Cullinan Diamond” , “Cullinan 1″ (Sceptre) , “Cullinan2″ (The imperial state crown). But need to high resolution , because I want to print it. May i have the softcopy of it?And How much can I have it?Please send me a email at : franky@apaxgroup.com