Muslim Said "Modern Science finds God"

(Perhaps the most important and astounding scientific discovery in human history.)

There was a time when science seemed to be the enemy of religious belief that time is no more! Modern physics and cosmology (science of the origin and development of the universe) now provide firm objective evidence of the existence of God, confirm the primary attributes of God, and show how God created the physical existence out of nothingness. This knowledge comes from a critical analysis of the Big Bang theory, Einstein Special Theory of Relativity, and work being done in quantum physics. The concepts behind this esoteric scientific knowledge can now be presented in such a way as to be understood by any person with a modern education.



1. We now know according to the most widely accepted theories of cosmology that the physical universe we see today was created out of nothingness (meaning no time, no space, and no matter).

2. We also know that the beginning of the creation of the universe took place by light coming into existence at a singularity (a point with no dimension).

3. We know that the matter of the physical universe was brought into being by photons (little packages of light energy) which, when colliding with each other, formed the virtually infinite number of protons, neutrons and electrons, which in various combinations make up everything in our physical world.

4. In essence we can now accurately say that all the matter of the physical universe, ourselves included, is actually light slowed down.

5. We know that the space which contains our physical universe is expanding. This is a concept so alien to human thought that until Albert Einstein developed his General Theory of Relativity early in the 20th century it had never occurred to any of the worlds great minds, but was stated in the Quran over 1400 years ago when Allah told us, I am expanding the universe with my power. Even Einstein was so astounded by his discovery that he falsified his data to show a universe that was not expanding, because he well understood that an expanding universe implies there was somewhere in the distant past a moment of creation for the universe.

6. Einstein Special Theory of Relativity (which he actually called his Absolutism Theorem because he realized he had found the one thing in a relative universe that was absolute) is about the special qualities of light.

7. The Special Theory of Relativity allows us our first objective glimpse into that which exists beyond the material world.

8. We could have found anything once we got our first glimpse beyond the material world, but what we did find is indeed remarkable. We find Einstein Special Theory of Relativity showing us that the non- material existence beyond the physical world consists only of absolutes, and some of those absolutes are remarkably similar to what everyone religion has considered to be among the primary attributes of God.

9. Example One: As the speed of light (300,000km per second) is approached then time slows, and at the speed of light time does not pass. This means for a photon of light which travels at exactly the speed of light, time does not pass. Therefore the photon is outside of time, and ETERNAL.

10. Example Two: Since no time passes for a photon of light, and that photon can be observed at different places in space, therefore that photon of light is simultaneously in those different places (and many other places) at the same time, and therefore OMNIPRESENT.

11. Example Three: Since every bit of matter in the physical universe is created by the energy of light, and that light energy constantly sustains and directs the activity of every bit of matter in the physical existence, then there is no power other than the power of light, light energy is all the power that exists, and therefore OMNIPOTENT.

12.  Example Four: Since all knowledge that exists, that ever existed, or will exist, is stored by light energy and transmitted through light energy then there is no knowledge beyond that intrinsic to light, and therefore OMNISCIENT.

13. Furthermore, light does not actually exist within the physical existence although we can somehow perceive it. As you approach the speed of light one of the three dimensions (length, height, or width), the dimension in line with the direction of motion, becomes progressively less, and at the speed of light that dimension becomes zero. To determine volume we multiply height times width times length, but if any one of those three dimensions is zero then the volume is zero, and that thing therefore does not exist in the material universe. Light occupies no volume of space and therefore has no existence in the physical universe.

14. And, while everything in the physical universe has some mass greater than zero, which is a necessary characteristic for existence in the material world, light has no mass at all. As you approach the speed of light mass increases, at the speed of light mass is infinite. Regardless of how tiny the amount of mass you begin with, that mass rises to infinity at the speed of light. Since photons travel at the speed of light and do not reach infinite mass it means that they had zero mass to begin with, and light therefore does not actually exist in the material world.

15. In the physical existence everything is relative, the absolute existence or non-existence of any quality is not and can not be expressed, everything exists between those two extremes of the continuum from absolute expression to absolute non-expression. We find, though, that beyond the material existence all qualities exist either in an infinite state or have no existence at all, there is nothing in between.


The great significance of the above findings is that they destroy any possible notion of the physical universe existing as a fixed number of material particles which are moved about by a fixed set of physical laws. It is exactly this incorrect understanding of the physical existence which forms the basis of the scientific philosophy of materialism. It is the philosophy of materialism, particularly secular materialism, which has allowed the belief in God to be so powerfully challenged by unbelievers in these past few hundred years, more or less from the time of Sir Isaac Newton.

It is no longer intellectually possible nor logically reasonable, in light of the finding of modern physics and cosmology, to hold the view of the atheists (that there is no God). The only logically reasonable, and intellectually honest, conclusion that can be drawn from the findings of modern science is that God does exist, that the attributes of God are absolute, and that God did create the physical universe (including human life). We are presently at the beginning of the transition point from a secular materialistic world-view to a spiritual, God-centered world-view.

NOTE: These are only some of the simplified conclusions of a major work in progress, but we felt they are of such great significance that we had an obligation to offer them to the ummah (the human society of Allah’s Creation). The scientific facts behind these interpretations represent a virtual consensus by a number of the world’s leading physicists, including several Nobel Prize winning theoretical physicists. The interpretations themselves are at the cutting-edge of Islamic theological thought, but have so far been very warmly received by Muslim scholars across the world.





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Top 25 Concert Halls Around the World

Wikipedia has an enormous list of Concert Halls around the world. This list is not exhaustive and was not compiled for a concert hall’s cultural, historical or architectural significance. It is simply a visual tour around the world through the lens of concert halls; which are often considered important cultural landmarks of a city. Enjoy!



1. The Walt Disney Concert Hall – Los Angeles, California


The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, California, is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Avenue, and 1st and 2nd Streets, it seats 2,265 people and serves (among other purposes) as the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

Lillian Disney made an initial gift in 1987 to build a performance venue as a gift to the people of Los Angeles and a tribute to Walt Disney’s devotion to the arts and to the city. The Frank Gehry-designed building opened on October 24, 2003.



2. National Centre for the Performing Arts – Beijing, China


The National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), colloquially described as The Bird’s Egg, is an opera house in Beijing, People’s Republic of China. The Centre, an ellipsoid dome of titanium and glass surrounded by an artificial lake, seats 5,452 people in three halls and is almost 12,000 m² in size. It was designed by French architect Paul Andreu. Construction started in December 2001 and the inaugural concert was held in December 2007.



3. The Oslo Opera House – Oslo, Norway


The Oslo Opera House is the home of The Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, and the national opera theatre in Norway. The building is situated in the Bjorvika neighborhood of central Oslo, at the head of the Oslofjord. It is operated by Statsbygg, the government agency which manages property for the Norwegian government.

The structure contains 1,100 rooms in a total area of 38,500 m2 (414,000 sq ft). The main auditorium seats 1,364 seats and two other performance spaces that can seat 200 and 400. The main stage is 16 m (52 ft) wide and 40 m (130 ft) deep. The angled exterior surfaces of the building are covered with Italian marble and white granite and make it appear to rise from the water. It is the largest cultural building constructed in Norway since Nidarosdomen was completed circa 1300.



4. Royal Albert Hall – London, England


The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since its opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world’s leading artists from several performance genres have appeared on its stage and it has become one of the UK’s most treasured and distinctive buildings. Each year it hosts more than 350 events including classical concerts, rock and pop, ballet and opera, sports, award ceremonies, school and community events, charity performances and banquets.

The hall was originally supposed to have been called The Central Hall of Arts and Sciences, but the name was changed by Queen Victoria to Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences when laying the foundation stone as a dedication to her deceased husband and consort Prince Albert. It forms the practical part of a national memorial to the Prince Consort – the decorative part is the Albert Memorial directly to the north in Kensington Gardens, now separated from the Hall by the road Kensington Gore.



5. The Copenhagen Concert Hall – Copenhagen, Denmark


The Koncerthuset (Copenhagen Concert Hall in English) by Jean Nouvel is a part of the new DR Byen (DR Town), that houses the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, DR. The concert hall and the DR Town are located in the northern part of Orestad – an ambitious development area in Copenhagen, Denmark. The concert complex consists of four halls with the main auditorium seating 1,800 people. It serves as the home of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra.



6. Auditorio de Tenerife – Canary Islands, Spain


The Auditorio de Tenerife was designed by architect Santiago Calatrava Valls. It is located on the Avenue of the Constitution in the Canarian capital, Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain), and next to the Atlantic Ocean in the southern part of Port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Construction began in 1997 and was completed in 2003. The auditorium was inaugurated on 26 September of that year with the presence of Felipe de Borbón, Prince of Asturias, and was later visited by former U.S. President Bill Clinton. The building is framed within the tenets of late-modern architecture of the late 20th century.

The majestic profile of the auditorium has become an architectural symbol of the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the island of Tenerife and the Canary Islands. It is also regarded as the finest modern building in the Canary Islands and one of the most emblematic buildings of Spanish architecture. In March 2008, it was included by the post office in a set of six stamps (Correos) depicting the most emblematic works of Spanish architecture. It is one of the major attractions of Tenerife and home to the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife (Tenerife Symphony Orchestra).



7. National Theater and Concert Hall – Taipei, Taiwan


The National Theater and National Concert Hall are twin performing arts venues in Zhongzheng District, Taipei, Taiwan. Completed in 1987, they are Taiwan’s primary national performing arts venues. The landmarks stand, respectively, on the south and north sides of Liberty Square in front of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. Together the structures are referred to by the acronym NTCH serving as facilities of the National Chiang Kai-shek Cultural Center. The square itself sits near Ketagalan Boulevard, the Presidential Office Building and National Central Library.



8. Rudolfinum – Prague, Czech Republic

The Rudolfinum is a music auditorium in Prague, Czech Republic. It is designed in the neo-renaissance style and is situated on Jan Palach Square on the bank of the river Vltava.



9. Casa da Música – Porto, Portugal


Casa da Música is a major concert hall space in Porto, Portugal which houses the cultural institution of the same name with its three orchestras Orquestra Nacional do Porto, Orquestra Barroca and Remix Ensemble. It was designed by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas with Office for Metropolitan Architecture and Arup-AFA, and was built as part of Porto’s project for European Culture Capital in 2001 but was only finished in the first half of 2005 and immediately became an icon in the city.

The Building engineers were Arup (London) together with Afassociados (Porto). Inside Outside (Petra Blaisse) designed the large 13 curtains, ranging from 22mx15m to 65mx8m, and the gold leaf wood grain pattern on the large auditorium. Although the opening day concert took place on the April 14 with Cla and Lou Reed, the building was inaugurated on April 15, 2005 by the Portuguese president. The Prime-minister and many other notable politicians and Porto society were present for the concert by the Orquestra Nacional do Porto.



10. Carnegie Hall – New York City, USA


Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1891, it is one of the most prestigious venues in the world for both classical music and popular music.

Carnegie Hall has its own artistic programming, development, and marketing departments, and presents about 250 performances each season. It is also rented out to performing groups. The hall has not had a resident company since 1962, when the New York Philharmonic moved to Lincoln Center’s Philharmonic Hall (renamed Avery Fisher Hall in 1973).



11. Palacio de Bellas Artes – Mexico City, Mexico


The Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts) is the most important cultural center in Mexico City as well as the rest of the country of Mexico. It is located on the west side of the historic center of Mexico City next to the Alameda Central park.

The first National Theater of Mexico was built in the late 19th century, but it was soon decided to tear this down in favor of a more opulent building in time for Centennial of the Mexican War of Independence in 1910. The initial design and construction was undertaken by Italian architect Adamo Boari in 1904, but complications arising from the soft subsoil and the political problem both before and during the Mexican Revolution, hindered then stopped construction completely by 1913.

Construction began again in 1932 under Mexican architect Federico Mariscal and was completed in 1934. The exterior of the building is primarily Neoclassical and Art Nouveau and the interior is primarily Art Deco. The building is best known for its murals by Diego Rivera, Siqueiros and others, as well as the many exhibitions and theatrical performances its hosts, including the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico.



12. Opernhaus Dortmund – Dortmund, Germany


Opernhaus Dortmund (Dortmund Opera House) is the opera house of Dortmund, Germany, opened in 1966 and formally operated by the Theater Dortmund. The first opera house of Dortmund of 1904 had been destroyed in World War II. The new opera house was designed by architects Heinrich Rosskotten and Edgar Tritthart. The design separates the functions stage and technical rooms in the Buhnenhaus (stage house), dominated by straight lines, from the hall for the audience under a thin-shell structure roof.



13. Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater – Baku, Azerbiajan

The Akhundov Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater is a theatre in Baku, Azerbaijan. It was built in 1911.



14. The Sage Gateshead – Gateshead Quays, UK


The Sage Gateshead is a centre for musical education, performance and conferences, located in Gateshead on the south bank of the River Tyne, in the North East of England. It opened in 2004. The venue is part of the Gateshead Quays development, which also includes the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and the Gateshead Millennium Bridge.



15. Bolshoi Theatre – Moscow, Russia


The Bolshoi Theatre is an historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds performances of ballet and opera. The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera are amongst the oldest and most renowned ballet and opera companies in the world. The theatre is the parent company of The Bolshoi Ballet Academy, a world-leading school of ballet.

The main building of the theatre, rebuilt and renovated several times during its history, is a landmark of Moscow and Russia (its iconic neoclassical facade is depicted on the Russian 100-ruble banknote). On 28 October 2011, the Bolshoi was re-opened after an extensive six year renovation costing about 21 billion rubles (about $680 million). The renovation included restoring acoustics to the original quality (which had been lost during the Soviet Era), as well as restoring the original Imperial decor of the Bolshoi.



16. Harpa – Reykjavik, Iceland


Harpa is a concert hall and conference centre in Reykjavík, Iceland. The opening concert was held on May 4, 2011. Harpa was designed by the Danish firm Henning Larsen Architects in co-operation with Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. The structure consists of a steel framework clad with irregularly-shaped glass panels of different colours.

The building was originally part of a redevelopment of the Austurhofn area dubbed World Trade Center Reykjavík, which was partially abandoned when the financial crisis took hold. The development was intended to include a 400-room hotel, luxury apartments, retail units, restaurants, a car park and the new headquarters of Icelandic bank Landsbanki.



17. Arts Centre – Melbourne, Australia


Arts Centre Melbourne, originally known as The Victorian Arts Centre and briefly officially called The Arts Centre, is a performing arts centre consisting of a complex of theatres and concert halls in the Melbourne Arts Precinct, located in the inner Melbourne suburb of Southbank in Victoria, Australia.

It was designed by architect Sir Roy Grounds, the masterplan for the complex (along with the National Gallery of Victoria) was approved in 1960, and construction of the Arts Centre began in 1973 following some delays. The complex opened in stages, with Hamer Hall opening in 1982, and the Theatres Building opening in 1984.



18. The Egg – Albany, New York


The Egg is a performing arts venue in Albany, New York. Named for the shape it resembles, it was designed by Harrison & Abramovitz as part of the Empire State Plaza project, and built between 1966 and 1978. It is located in the northeast corner of the Plaza. It has become an icon of Albany’s Capital District, due to its unusual shape and central location.



19. Konzerthaus Berlin – Berlin, Germany



The Konzerthaus Berlin is a concert hall situated on the Gendarmenmarkt square in the central Mitte district of Berlin housing the German orchestra Konzerthausorchester Berlin. Built as a theatre from 1818 to 1821 under the name of the Schauspielhaus Berlin, its usage changed to a concert hall after the Second World War and its name changed to its present one in 1994.



20. Cidade da Música – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil


The Cidade das Artes is a cultural complex located in Barra da Tijuca in the Southwest Zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which was originally planned to open in 2004. The formal inauguration is now anticipated for 2012, restyled as Cidade das Artes (City of Arts). The project’s R$515 million (approx. US$250 million) to the city of Rio caused much controversy was originally budgeted at R$86 million.

As the new home of the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra and a main centre for music, the Cidade das Artes will be the largest modern concert hall in South America, with 1,780 seats. The complex spans approximately 90 thousand square metres and also features a chamber music hall, three theatres, and 12 rehearsal rooms. From the terrace there is a panoramic view of the region, from Barra’s borught. The building was designed by the French architect Christian de Portzamparc and construction was funded by the city of Rio de Janeiro.



21. Harmony Hall Fukui – Fukui, Japan


The Harmony Hall Fukui, often abbreviated as HHF, is a concert hall located in Fukui, Fukui, Japan. Established in 1997, the building is owned by the Fukui Prefecture Organization for Cultural Promotion. It is known for having a huge organ built by Karl Schuke Berliner Orgelbauwerkstatt GmbH in the main music hall.



22. Roy Thompson Hall – Toronto, Canada


Roy Thomson Hall is a concert hall located at 60 Simcoe Street in Toronto, Ontario. It is the home of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. Opened in 1982, its circular architectural design exhibits a sloping and curvilinear glass exterior. It was designed by Canadian architects Arthur Erickson and Mathers and Haldenby. The hall seats 2630 and features a pipe organ built by Canadian organ builders Gabriel Kney of London, Ontario.

The hall was formerly known as New Massey Hall. It acquired its current name from the family of Roy Thomson (first Lord Thomson of Fleet and founder of the publishing empire Thomson Corporation) who had donated $4.5 million (Canadian dollars) to complete the fund-raising efforts for the new hall. The hall was renovated over a period of six months in 2002, after years of complaints from musicians about the quality of its acoustics.



23. Sydney Opera House – Sydney, Australia


The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, opening in 1973 after a long gestation that had begun with his competition-winning design in 1957. The Sydney Opera House was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007.

Contrary to its name, the building houses multiple performance venues. The Sydney Opera House is among the busiest performing arts centres in the world, hosting over 1,500 performances each year attended by some 1.2 million people.



24. Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay – Singapore


Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay is a waterside building located on six hectares of waterfront land alongside Marina Bay near the mouth of the Singapore River, purpose-built to be the centre for performing arts for the island nation of Singapore. Taking its name from the nearby Esplanade, it contains a Concert Hall which seats about 1,600 and a Theatre with a capacity of about 2,000 for the performing arts.



25. The Royal Opera House Muscat – Muscat, Oman


The Royal Opera House Muscat (ROHM) is Oman’s premier venue for musical arts and culture. It was officially opened on October 12th, 2011, with a production of the opera Turandot, conducted by Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo. The opera house is located in Shati Al-Qurm district of Muscat, Oman. Built on the royal orders of Sultan Qaboos of Oman, the Royal Opera House reflects contemporary Omani architecture, and has a capacity to accommodate maximum of 1,100 people.

This opera house is first in the world equipped with Radio Marconi’s multimedia interactive display seatback system, Mode23. The opera house complex consists of a concert theatre, auditorium, formal landscaped gardens, cultural market with retail, luxury restaurants and an art centre for musical, theatrical and operatic productions.







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Cappadocia, Turkey


Cappadocia Ballooning – Valley of the Chimneys

Cappadocia in Turkey is an underground fantasyland of fairy chimneys and churches. The astounding geological beauty of Cappadocia is a wonder-destination of Central Anatolia. It is an extensive island district, where nature and history mix-match most beautifully. This fantasyland has so much to offer ranging from ‘fairy chimneys’ and churches cut out of soft rock formations to some amazingly intricate systems of tunnels and underground cities. It is an exotic diversity found in the crucible of culture where East meets West!


Cappadocia – Goreme Village by Traces in the Sand. The amazing and bizarre village of Goreme, literally cut from the strange rock formations of Cappadocia.

Nestled in the center of Anatolian peninsula, Cappadocia has become one of the most notable tourist destinations in Turkey. The uniqueness of the region was formed by the eruption of Mt. Erciyes and Mt. Hassan, some 60 million years ago that spread a thick layer of ash over the area. With time, this hardened into a soft porous stone known as tufa. Coincidentally, the erosion by rain and wind created valleys in the soft rock that left behind higher sections of interesting formations known as ‘fairy chimneys’.


Village in Cappadocia

Cappadocia boasts of several underground hidden cities and intricate tunnels that were mostly used by early Christians as hiding places. The inhabitants could hide thousands of people and animals within these complexes, which had wells, chimneys, stables and even tombs.


Goreme – Celestial Canopy

The region was a Roman province and the refuge of persecuted Christians during the early days of the Roman Empire. For most of the Byzantine era, it remained relatively undeterred by the conflicts in the area, first with the Sassanid Empire and later against the Islamic expansion led by Arabs. Though the early Christians are credited with the building of this mysterious supercity but some historians believe that few parts date back to the end of the Ice Age – 9500 BC.


Church carved from rocks by early persecuted Christians

The people living here used heavy rolling stone doors to prevent invaders from entering. They dug deep wells for water, and constructed tall chimneys for ventilation. Surprisingly the inhabitants even curved highly structured churches, wine presses, oil storage, cooking-places out of the rock so that they could live for weeks underground until it was safe outside.


Fairy Chimney Hotel in Göreme


Uçhisar

Cappadocia has dozens of underground cities, but the most elaborate ones are at Kaymakli and Derinkuyu. One of the most fascinating areas is Goreme, which accommodates an open-air museum that stands visually striking with its ‘fairy chimney’ volcanic cones. Surprisingly over 30 of the best-preserved churches of Cappadocia can be seen here. Avanos is another pretty town on the Kizilirmak, where inhabitants make their living from the malleable river clay for years, shaping everything from pots and roofing tiles to statues and more.


The huge and sprawling Selime Rock Monastery was carved out the rock by Christian monks in the 13th century. A steep climb is the only way to access it.

Kaymakli and Derinkuyu are known as Capadocia’s deepest and the most elaborate underground cities. Kaymakli was cut out of volcanic soft stone (tufa) as deep as 300 feet during the period covering sixth to the tenth centuries. The underground city of Derinkuyu is estimated to have twenty floors, out of which only eight can be visited today with an estimated capacity to bear 20,000 people.


Kaymaklı underground city


Map of the underground city of Kaymakli, Cappadocia, Turkey.

Soganli valley, Uchisar, Zelve, Urgup, witnesses some splendid scenery and age-old rock carved churches and chapels that are unique geographical, historical and cultural features. The pigeon valley between Goreme and Uchisar offers spectacular views of the natural cliffs and some fabricated caves, passing through few tunnels, carved within the rock. Nearly 35 multi-level complexes including the networks at Ozkonak, Derinkuyu and Kaymakli have not yet been fully explored.


Kaymakli underground city

These subterranean towns with carved out rock caves, pointed termite mounted looking structures has a supernatural feeling and it is almost magnificent in all directions. These cities were abandoned in late 14th century.


Pigeon Valley


Central Turkey. Pigeon valley


The stunnig village of Uchishar at sunset


The Past and the Present – Pigeon Valle






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Curse of the Hope Diamond



Diamonds are known for their extraordinary cut and brilliance; the famous large 45.52 carats blue Hope Diamond is no exception either. But what sets it apart from its other dazzling counterparts is the eerie legend of curse attached to it. Currently displayed in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C, the Hope Diamond originally came from the Kollur mine in Golconda and belonged to the statue of the deity Sita in India. Ever since it was stolen from the Indian temple, it passed through several hands, touching each with its cursed heritage.

The greatly disputed ‘curse’ of the Hope Diamond entailing a trail of death or misfortune of its owners is said to have befallen the blue gem from the very moment it was stolen by the widely traveled French jeweler Jean Baptiste Tavernier in 1642. Right after selling it to Louis XIV, Tavernier met his tragic end in his next trip to India where wild dogs ripped him into pieces. The diamond received the royal title ‘Blue Diamond of the Crown’ and new cuts that turned it into a heart-shaped stone of 67-1/8 carats.


The Hope Diamond

The misfortune carried by the Hope Diamond struck again when it was inherited by Louis XVI and his queen Marie Antoinette. After a disturbing and unstable reign, both were beheaded during the French Revolution of 1789. During this French political crisis, the royal jewelries including the Hope Diamond were placed in the Garde-Meuble from where they were repeatedly stolen. With time, the rest of the jewels were retrieved but the notorious blue diamond went amiss for some time.


45.52 Carat, deep blue diamond. Est. Value: $250 million.

Before it was seen again in London, the Hope Diamond probably went into the possession of the Spanish Queen Maria Louisa in 1800. During that period, it was reshaped by the Dutch jeweler Wilhelm Fals. He died of sheer grief when the diamond was stolen by his son Hendrick, who went on to commit suicide under the cursed influence of the diamond. Thereafter, the diamond was bought by Henry Philip Hope in 1813 and has been called the ‘Hope Diamond’ since then.

The diamond left its trail of misfortunes in the Hope family by stripping it of its prosperity and leading on to bankruptcy. After the death of Henry Hope, the diamond was passed on to his grandson Lord Francis Hope who tried repeatedly to get permission from the court to sell it. In 1901, his request was finally granted when he had reached the worst stage of gambling and bankruptcy.



Meantime, the Hope Diamond claimed some more unfortunate famous victims. The Hope passed from the hands of the Russian prince Kanitowski to French actor Lorens Ladue whom he shot dead on stage. He was not himself spared by the revolutionaries who stabbed him later. Its Greek owner Simon Montharides was plunged with his family into a precipice in an automobile accident. Even the Turkish Sultan Abdul-Hamid II who possessed the Hope diamond for a short time encountered dethronement in 1909.



The Hope Diamond traveled to the United State of America with jeweler Simon Frankel and went to jeweler Pierre Cartier, who looked for a prospective buyer. His search ended with the rich and eccentric social figure Evalyn Walsh McLean, who agreed to buy it after hearing the curious tales of its cursed legacy. She was determined to turn it into a good luck charm but encountered too many family blows as its owner. Her son died in a car accident, her daughter committed suicide while her husband went insane and died in the confines of a mental hospital.



After the death of Evalyn McLean, the Hope Diamond was put to sale in 1949 and bought by a New York jeweler named Harry Winston. Perhaps affected by the tales of its curse, Winston made up his mind to donate the diamond to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, which is its present destination.


The hope diamond exhibit

It is said that the curse of the Hope Diamond was so strong that when it was delivered to the museum in a plain brown box by the USPS mail carrier James Todd, he faced leg injuries run over by a truck. Further tragedies unfolded on Todd as his wife died of a cardiac arrest, his dog died strangled by its leash and finally his house was burnt down by a fire.

May Yohe, the actor who is supposedly the last of the Hopes; tried to build on the cursed legend of the Hope Diamond by creating a 15-episode serial – “The Hope Diamond Mystery”. The serial included her personal misfortunes caused by the possession of the Hope Diamond along with a score of fictional characters posed as the victims of the Hope Diamond curse. Although her efforts to hog limelight through the Hope Diamond did not bear fruit, the fact remains that the Hope Diamond has at its wake the tragedies of many non-famous jewelers and intermediaries who were somehow involved in its handling.









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