The big picture at the beginning of the hunt shows less than half of the total area of the carpet, and the picture has been made smaller to fit on your computer screen. If the real carpet was laid on the floor it would take up about as much space as two station wagons, one parked behind the other!

How old is the carpet?

The carpet is 350 to 400 years old.

Where was the carpet made?

The carpet probably was woven in Lahore, in northern India. It is now in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

How was the carpet made?

This is a pile carpet, which means that it is made from a combination of weaving and knotting techniques. The design of the carpet is determined by millions of tiny knots of different- colored yarn.

To weave a pile carpet, a weaver sets up a large loom that looks like a frame. Lengthwise threads called "warps" are stretched from top to bottom, much like the strings of a harp. Working horizontally across the loom, the weaver ties knots around pairs of these threads. Finally, two or three other rows of "weft" yarns are woven horizontally on top of the line of knots to hold them in place.

See a diagram of a loom.






Go back to the carpet.

Go back to Activities.

Make a Carpet Collage.