Diamond Museum

The Diamond Museum was surprisingly interesting.  We weren't sure what to expect, certainly not clips of famous movie "Diamond Heists", replicas of most of the well-known world diamonds and definitely did not expect a giant gorilla skull covered in diamonds.  While most diamonds were not real, it was still fun to see and a quick visit, free with our "MuseumKaarts"

The museum starts with the science behind diamonds, how they form from coal and where major deposits are located.  This was a next step in our summer geology lesson, after going to Frank Slide with Aunt Geologist Nicole, learning all about coal, then going coal hunting.

I did not realise Amsterdam is the Diamond Cutting capital of the world, while the diamond selling capital is Antwerp, Belgium (80% of the world's diamonds go through here!).  We learned it is a very specialised skill to cut diamonds and there are only a few places it is done in the world.  The Dutch have records of doing it for over 400 years and some very special diamonds included - Crown jewels!

Practising our diamond cutting skills...

There was also a cool section on real v. fake and how experts tell the difference.

Yes we are fancy, trying on Diamonds...haha...

Nicole, can you take us on a field trip to find some diamonds soon?  In the meantime we'll be catching up on some movies...Pink Panther, To Catch a Thief, Ocean's Eleven, Flawless, any others?