The
Koh-i-Noor (Persian for
Mountain of Light; also spelled
Koh-i-Nûr and
Kooh-è Noor) is a large, colourless diamond that was found at
Kollur Mine, in the present-day state of
Andhra Pradesh, India, probably in the 13th century. It originally weighed uncut. The diamond was first owned by the
Kakatiya dynasty, which had installed it in a temple of a
Hindu goddess as her eye. It changed hands several times between various feuding factions in South Asia over the next few hundred years, before finally ending up in the possession of
Queen Victoria after the British conquest of the
Punjab in 1849.