The first diamonds to be unearthed by man were discovered in India in the 4th-century BC and were quickly dispersed along the ancient trade route, the Silk Road. Ancient civilizations believed diamonds were gifts from the Gods and that they would bring health, wealth, and strength.
100 miles deep in the Earth, a layer separating our hospitable exterior from the molten core, known as the mantle, is where diamonds were made. Temperatures boiled above 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit and pressure exceeded 725,000 pounds per square inch.
The extreme heat and pressure combined actually modified graphite, a crystalline carbon, on the atomic level. This restructured graphite’s molecular composition from a hexagonal sheet pattern into a triangular shape, resulting in a diamond.
