The Peacock Throne

The account

It took seven years to build and it may have been the single most valuable object ever made by human hands. The Peacock Throne, unveiled for the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in 1635, was a platform of solid gold reached by silver steps, more than a tonne of it, set with a quarter tonne of diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and pearls. Behind the seat rose two gem-encrusted peacocks with spread tails, and among the stones blazing in it were the Koh-i-Noor diamond and the great red Timur Ruby. For a century it sat in the Red Fort of Delhi as the beating heart of the richest empire on earth.

In 1739 it was carried off in blood. The Persian warlord Nader Shah stormed Delhi, turned his troops loose to slaughter twenty thousand of its people in a single day, and hauled the Peacock Throne and a river of other plunder back across the mountains to Persia. The Koh-i-Noor went with it.

And then the trophy destroyed its taker. In 1747 Nader Shah was murdered by his own guards, and Persia collapsed into anarchy. In the looting and chaos that followed, the throne was torn apart, its gold melted, its jewels levered out of their settings and carried off in a hundred directions.

So the most opulent treasure ever made can never be found, for the cruelest reason of all: it no longer exists. There is no throne to dig up, only its scattered pieces, loose in the world. The Koh-i-Noor sits in the British crown jewels. The Timur Ruby surfaced in a royal collection. But the gold, and the great mass of the diamonds and emeralds and pearls that made up the rest of it, simply dissolved into the dark after 1747, into vaults and rumors and other men's crowns, and no one has ever put the throne back together, because the throne is everywhere and nowhere at once.

Known intelligence

• Built for the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and unveiled in 1635, the Peacock Throne held over a tonne of gold and 230 kg of gems, including the Koh-i-Noor.
• The Persian conqueror Nader Shah sacked Delhi in 1739, massacred its people, and carried the throne back to Persia as a war trophy.
• Nader Shah was assassinated in 1747, and Persia fell into anarchy.
• In the chaos the throne was dismantled and its gold and jewels scattered; some famous stones survive, but the throne itself was destroyed.

Theories of the hunt

• The throne no longer exists; its jewels were prised out and dispersed across Persia and beyond.
• Named stones like the Koh-i-Noor and the Timur Ruby survive in other crowns, but most of the throne's wealth simply vanished.

Leads, where the trail points now

• The throne no longer exists, so the only leads are its scattered jewels: the Koh-i-Noor in the British Crown Jewels and the Timur Ruby and other Mughal stones in the Royal Collection are documented survivors.
• Persian and later accounts, including a 1760 traveler who claimed to see a throne in Isfahan, blur whether a copy or fragments outlived Nader Shah's 1747 assassination; sorting original from replica is the historical thread.
• Cut Mughal stones can sometimes be traced through later royal collections in Iran, Britain, and India, so gemological provenance is the realistic hunt.
• There is nothing to excavate; this is a documentary and gemological trail.

The trail, in order

• 1635: the Peacock Throne is unveiled in the Red Fort of Delhi.
• 1739: Nader Shah sacks Delhi and seizes the throne.
• 1747: Nader Shah is assassinated; Persia descends into chaos.
• after 1747: the throne is broken up and its jewels scattered.

Sources and the record

• Peacock Throne (Wikipedia)
• Peacock Throne (Britannica)