Nadir Shah's Loot (Peacock Throne, Koh-i-Noor)
Region — where it (roughly) is
Land & claims · BLM · live
The story
In 1739, the Mughal Empire's accumulated splendor changed hands in a single, ruthless stroke.
The man who took it was Nadir Shah, the Persian ruler whose armies sacked Delhi that year and emptied the Mughal treasury of its most fabled riches. The greatest prize was the Peacock Throne — a seat of pure spectacle, encrusted with jewels, the very symbol of Mughal magnificence — and Nadir Shah carried it off westward. With it went diamonds whose names still echo: the Koh-i-Noor and the Daria-i-Noor, stones famous enough to anchor legends of their own.
It was one of the largest single transfers of treasure in history, an empire's crown wealth loaded up and hauled away. And then, in the way of all such hoards, it began to scatter.
Some of the gems survived the centuries and can be traced — they live on in royal collections, the famous diamonds passing through later hands and crowns rather than vanishing entirely. But the throne itself did not last. The jeweled Peacock Throne was later dismantled and destroyed, broken up so that the seat of Mughal majesty no longer exists as the object Nadir Shah seized. And much of the rest of the hoard — the broader plunder beyond the headline stones — is simply lost, dispersed beyond tracing in the long aftermath of the sack.
So this is a treasure that is part trophy, part ghost. The most famous diamonds endure, set and catalogued. The throne is gone. And the great mass of what Nadir Shah carried out of Delhi has dissolved into the centuries, partially lost, never to be reassembled.
Fact vs. legend: Documented: Nadir Shah looted the Mughal treasury after the 1739 sack of Delhi, carrying off the jeweled Peacock Throne and famous diamonds including the Koh-i-Noor and Daria-i-Noor; some gems survive in royal collections, the throne was later dismantled and destroyed, and much of the hoard is lost. The loot is partially lost — this is documented history, not legend.
Search area: The point marks dispersed after the 1739 sack of Delhi — the search area or landmark, not the treasure, whose exact location is unknown.