Kohinoor

Koh-i-noor, "Mountain of Light," the largest diamond belonging to the British Crown. Indian tradition states it to have been found near Golconda more than 5,000 years ago. Tavernier saw it apparently in the possession of the Great Mogul in 1665, when it weighed 280 carats, but was said to have been unskilfully reduced from a former weight of 793 carats. In 1739 it came into the possession of Nadir Shah, and in 1813 into that of Runjeet Sing. On the annexation of the Punjaub in 1849 it became British, but only weighed 186 carats. It has since been recut as a rose-diamond, and so reduced to 106 carats. It is suggested that the Russian Orloff diamond, the largest now known, which weighs 194 carats, and a stone weighing 132 carats, long used by a peasant as a strike-a-light and still belonging to Persia, both originally formed parts of the Koh-i-noor.