19 May 2026

The town of Nordlingen in Bavaria was built inside a meteor crater formed roughly 14.5 million years ago. Locals quarried the crater rock for centuries to build their cathedral, the town hall, and thousands of homes, not knowing it contained microscopic diamonds formed by the asteroid impact. Scientists estimate the crater holds around 72,000 tons of tiny diamonds. The townspeople had been walling themselves inside gemstones for generations.