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Now In: Diamonds
The diamond is the hardest known substance in the world. It can cut through steel by pressure alone. Incredibly, the diamond is the only gemstone made of just one element -- carbon, the building block found in every living animal and plant.
Part of the mystery of the diamond is that it gets formed at all. Billions of years ago, in a deep layer of the earth, a unique combination of chemicals, pressure, and temperature changes created diamonds out of pure carbon. This was no easy task -- the pressure needed to create a diamond is close to what you’d get if you balanced a skyscraper on a small, flat metal disk.
Violent and powerful volcanic eruptions forced cone shaped veins of diamond-bearing ore – called Kimberlite -- to the earth’s surface, where they can now be mined. Mining techniques can process thousands of tons of diamond ore a day, but it still takes 250 tons of ore to produce one carat of rough diamond. Of all retrieved diamonds, only 20% are gem quality stones.
The diamond has a history as old and fascinating as any ever told -- it is filled with mystery, myths, and wondrous truths. The name "diamond" comes from the Greek word for "unconquerable," and its actual and symbolic strength was revered by ancient kings from China and India to Egypt and Rome.
Until the 18th century - with the discovery of diamond deposits in Brazil and South Africa - nearly all diamonds came from India. Historically, diamonds were traded along two routes that ended in Europe. Starting from India, traders followed a land route that led to Constantinople. From there, they were shipped to Italian cities like Venice. The other route imported diamonds by water through the Saudi Peninsula and then to Europe from Egypt.
Even during the 16th century, the biggest and best diamonds never arrived in Europe -- they were bought up by Arab princes who lived along the traders’ routes. In China, diamonds were long a popular stone, too. The Chinese honored the diamond as an unbeatable stone cutting and engraving tool, to be used by only the richest and most noble men.
The French Dukes of Burgundy made wearing diamond jewelry popular in the second half of the 15th century. Before then, the diamond was generally used as a talisman -- more revered for its curative and strengthening powers than loved for its beauty. During the Renaissance, the diamond’s reputed killing powers were almost as great as its curing ones. Rumors about "diamond poison" grew, linked to the likes of Catherine De Medici (1519-89), whose "powder of succession" (probably arsenic) eliminated many unlucky enough to have hopes of sitting on the French throne.
Fortunately, the diamond’s appeal outlasted the nasty rumors. The tradition of giving diamonds as tokens of love and commitment began at the end of the 15th century when Austrian Archduke Maximilian gave a diamond ring to his fiancé. They chose to place the ring on the fourth finger of the left hand because legend held that this finger provided a direct link between tokens of love and the heart.
As the diamond’s popularity grew, so too did the demands on the mines. At the beginning of the 18th century, when Indian mines were running dry, diamonds were discovered in Brazil. A Portuguese colonist named Sebastiano Leme do Prado realized that gold prospectors outside of Rio de Janeiro were using strangely transparent stones that they’d found on the ground as chips in their card games. Soon, the diamond rush was on in Brazil.
The Brazilian sources were remarkably productive, but they were overmined and started to run dry within a century. Fortunately, in 1867, diamonds were discovered on a South African farm in the Cape Province. Since then, mines in South Africa have been recovering diamonds at a remarkable rate and are only second to India for producing the world’s largest and most famous diamonds.
Currently, most diamonds are mined in the following countries: South Africa, Zaire, the former USSR, Australia, Botswana, Angola, Namibia, Brazil, Ghana, and China. The major cutting centers of the diamond world are in Antwerp, Bombay, Tel Aviv, and New York.
The diamond gets its name from the Greek, "adamas," for "unconquerable." For many centuries, this rare, transparent stone had an amazing reputation throughout Asia and Europe. Because its remarkable crystalline structure made it virtually impossible to cut or scratch, it was commonly believed to be unbreakable. It was believed that wearing a diamond would make its wearer invincible, too, so it was a favorite of kings and warriors.
In India, diamonds have been known and mined for thousands of years, but the rest of the world popularly believed that diamonds came out of "The Valley of the Diamonds." The ancient Roman writer, Pliny the Elder, included a detailed description of how diamonds were found in his Natural History.
According to Pliny, the Valley of the Diamonds was an unimaginably black pit that was so steep no man could descend it and return. To retrieve the gemstones that lay on the valley floor, clever men threw chunks of meat down. Birds of prey would swoop down and grasp the meat -- and the diamonds that stuck to it. Once they dropped the meat off at their nests, the daring men stole back the diamonds. Horrible, grisly variations of this story persisted for centuries, even as late as Marco Polo’s 13th century travel memoir, Book of Wonders.
In ancient times, legends evolved that promoted the mystical origins and powerful magic of the gemstone. The great philosopher Plato wrote that diamonds were living beings that embodied celestial spirits. It was also believed that diamonds were the crystallized tears of the gods.
Beyond the sparkling loveliness of the diamond, people used to wear a diamond to take on its magical properties. They also gave them as gifts to transfer those special powers to the ones they loved. The diamond’s positive spiritual and physical influences include the ability to enhance its wearer’s natural charm and beauty. It was also long believed that wearing a diamond protected the wearer against disease, and strengthened the kidneys and reproductive organs, which is as good a reason to wear one as any.
The diamond’s strength and pure, transparent beauty have always represented the purest emotions -- commitment and deep, lasting love.
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