The first two images are from outside the diamond exchange.
We got a view of the 'trading and grading floor' which has a lot of equipment which if I remember correctly is mostly used for looking at uncut and partly uncut diamonds.
Then we went many floors up to the offices of Rottman's Diamonds. They were the group doing the guidance on the tour.They showed us the way they grade diamonds by weight (carats), clarity, color and cut. This is also known as the four 'C's'. A website which explains this is here.
The diamonds are sorted. Many are mounted in silver, platinum or gold rings or other ornaments. Some are left unmounted.
Every week or two a general price list comes out which gives the wholesale price by carat by clarity. Colors and cut also factor in but its not on the printed list (as I remember).Beth took photos of some of the products after sorting and mounting.
The Diamond Exchange had a special 'buy and fly' deal. If you bought $150,000 worth of product, you would get $1000 rebate off your airplane ticket.
We were told that about 4000 people are employed cutting, sorting and mounting diamonds.
The foreground buildings are part of the district. The building in the back with the round top stories is the Moshe Aviv building and it is 68 stories and about 770' high. It is not part of the district but has a lot of offices of companies that deal with diamond and other trading and it also has some (very pricey) residential units.
Interestingly, the driver of the shuttle who took us to Ben Gurion Airport on October 30 said he used to be employed in the Diamond Exchange mounting diamonds but he quit because it was boring.
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