The Vault
Discover the stories behind some of nature's most rare, unique and valuable treasures in the Museum's new permanent gallery.
The Vault contains a dazzling collection of the finest gems, crystals, metals and meteorites from all around the world. Select the images below to see some of the highlights.
The Vault is open during normal Museum opening times and also after hours on the last Friday each month until 25 April 2008.
Entry to The Vault is free.
© Alan Bronstein and Harry Rodman/Aurora Gems, New York. Photograph by Robert Weldon
The Aurora Pyramid of Hope is a world-class collection of 296 naturally coloured diamonds. Only one in 10,000 gem-quality diamonds is coloured. The colour comes from tiny amounts of elements other than carbon or from defects in the diamond structure.
The Latrobe nugget is named in honour of Charles Joseph Latrobe, the Governor of the State of Victoria, Australia. He was shown the unusually large nugget during a visit to the McIvor gold mine where it was discovered in 1869.
Although it is small compared with others, the Latrobe nugget is one of the largest and finest groups of cubic gold crystals in the world. Well defined, large crystals of gold are rare and the Latrobe is one of only a handful worldwide. Some of its crystals are one and a half centimetres in size.
The Nakhla meteorite is an extremely rare Martian meteorite, one of less than 70 known in the world. People saw it fall to Earth in Egypt in 1911.
Incredible specimens like this one are extremely valuable to scientists as they can reveal a lot about the mysterious red planet, Mars. Clay minerals found in this meteorite prove that water once existed on Mars - and water is essential for a planet to sustain life.
© Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth. Reproduced by permission of Chatsworth Settlement Trustees
The Devonshire Emerald has 1,383.93 carats and is one of the biggest and most famous uncut emeralds in the world. It originates from the mines of Muzo in Colombia. Emperor Dom Pedro the First of Brazil gave the emerald to the sixth Duke of Devonshire in 1831.
It has the characteristic emerald shape of a hexagonal prism on a flat face, and is rough at one end. A small piece of the original limestone it grew in can still be seen at the base.
Known as the purple sapphire, the Heron-Allen amethyst was looted during the Indian mutiny in 1855 and brought to Britain. Everyone who owned the amethyst since that time suffered disaster and misfortune. According to Edward Heron-Allen, owner of the stone from 1890, it was 'cursed and stained with blood'. After discovering its sinister history he gave it to his bank with instructions for it not to be opened until three years after his death.
The stone was donated to the collections of the Natural History Museum by Heron-Allen's daughter, together with a letter he wrote to accompany the stone warning anyone against handling it.
