This
diamond mine in eastern Siberia (Mirny,
to be exact) is so deep that the
surrounding "air zone... is closed
for helicopters" after "a few
accidents when they were 'sucked in'
by downward
air
flow..."
Finally, look for the tiny red arrow
in the following photograph; it's
pointing to a 220-ton rock-hauling
truck more than 20' tall.
Meanwhile,
something altogether different and
Jules Vernian is about to occur
thanks to some Japanese scientists
hoping to drill down into the
earth's mantle: "Using a giant drill
ship launched [in July 2005], the
researchers aim to be the first to
punch a hole through the rocky crust
that covers our planet and to reach
the mantle below."
And then, in an oddly Borgesian, or
perhaps MC Escherian, moment of
nomenclatural mise-en-abîme, "The
57,500-tonne drill ship Chikyu
(Japanese for Earth) is being
prepared in the southern port of
Nagasaki. Two-thirds the length of
the Titanic, it is fitted with
technology borrowed from the oil
industry that will allow it to bore
through 7,000 metres of crust below
the seabed while floating in 2,500
metres of water – requiring a drill
pipe 25 times the height of the
Empire State building."
For some sense of perspective here,
the diamond mine, pictured above, is
1200 meters deep; that means that to
reach the mantle, the Japanese will
have to produce a drill-hole nearly
seven times deeper than the mine
(which sounds alarmingly easy,
actually – I was expecting to be
horrified).
In any case, the drill-ship is
called *Earth* and it's being
drilled down into the earth... The
attack of the simulacra begins.
17th century French jeweler,
Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605
-1689), was one of the early
pioneer's of Europe's diamond
trade with India. Although he
was born in Paris, his ancestors
were from Antwerp, Belgium. In
his book "The Six Voyages of
Jean-Baptist Tavernier" he
documented many historically
significant diamond cuts from
India's past (top and below).
The Koh-i-Noor changed ownership
several more times from the
Nadir Shah of Persia in the
early 1700s, to Shah Shuja in
the early 1800s. When Shah Shuja
was overthrown in 1810, he
sought refuge in Lahore, India,
taking the Koh-i-Noor with him.
Shah Shuja (and the Koh-i-Noor)
remained under the protection of
Raja Ranjit Singh until after
the Raja's death, when Punjab
came under British control. The
Koh-i-Noor remained in the
Lahore Treasury until 1848 when,
according to the terms of the
"Treaty of Lahore", the British
East India Company transported
the gem to the British Empir
