The largest rough diamond ever found is called the Cullinan, discovered in South Africa in 1905.
The Cullinan rough diamond and the nine gemstones cut from it. Photo: Wikipedia
The Cullinan is a massive 3,106-carat diamond measuring 10.1 x 6.35 x 5.9 centimeters. That's the equivalent of 621 grams, or about the weight of a basketball or 7,692 bees, according to IFL Science .
On January 25, 1905, Frederick Wells, manager of the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa, saw a flash of light from an object in the upper wall while he was 18 feet below the surface. Wells retrieved the diamond and delivered it to Sir Thomas Cullinan, the owner of the mine, that afternoon. However, no one came forward to buy the Cullinan-named diamond until 1907. Finally, the Transvaal provincial government bought the gem as a birthday present for King Edward VII of England. Worried that it might be stolen en route from Africa to London, King Edward arranged for a fake diamond to be placed on a steamer with several detectives to distract attention, while the Cullinan was sent to England in a plain box.
Because the Cullinan was too large to be saved in its original form, King Edward entrusted the cutting of the diamond to Joseph Asscher, head of the Asscher Diamond Company in Amsterdam. Asscher, who had previously cut the Excelsior, the previous record-holder of 971 carats, studied the stone for six months before attempting to cut it. On the first attempt, the steel blade broke while the diamond remained intact. On the second attempt, it took four days to make a 1.3-centimeter deep incision, allowing them to split the stone in two with a single tap. Asscher then passed out from exhaustion and anxiety. Over the next eight months, three men worked 14 hours a day to complete the division of the diamond. In the end, the Cullinan was cut into nine large stones, numbered I-IX, and nearly 100 smaller stones, worth millions of dollars.
The largest of these stones, Cullinan I, also known as the Star of Africa, weighs 530.2 carats (106 grams), equivalent to 32 tea bags. All nine large stones are owned by the British royal family, most of which are used to decorate crowns and other jewelry such as necklaces.
The second largest diamond after the Cullinan is the Excelsior, which was found by miners at the Jagersfontein mine in South Africa in 1893. The Jagersfontein mine is where two of the world's 10 largest diamonds were found. The other, the Jubilee, weighed 245.35 carats.
An Khang (According to IFL Science/History )
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