The Amber Room (n.)

The Amber Room, known as the “Eighth Wonder of the World,” was gifted by Frederick William I to Tzar Peter the Great of Russia in 1716, during a visit to Berlin City Palace. It was during this visit that he expressed his admiration for the splendor of the room-it was a project fifteen years in the making-and Frederick’s incredibly generous gift served as the formation of a Prussian-Russian alliance against Sweden. It was, in its time, the most expensive room in the world, its panels stretching sixteen feet tall, entirely gilded and covered in over six tons of delicately laid amber, the most precious of natural resources.

The room possesses a storied history, disassembled and moved twice, only to be destroyed by the Nazis during WWII, or so the story goes. No one has seen it since.