# What was the largest physical thing ever lost, forgotten about, misplaced?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-largest-physical-thing-ever-lost-forgotten-about-misplaced/646185>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 5, 2013, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-largest-physical-thing-ever-lost-forgotten-about-misplaced/646185 "2013-01-05T19:23:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 4

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-largest-physical-thing-ever-lost-forgotten-about-misplaced/646185/61 "2013-01-08T23:09:49Z")

</div>

Didn’t they lose a large part of Einstein’s brain (or not realize it was stolen, so everybody but one person forgot)?

They also lost/forgot about a lot of the Apollo 11 tapes; not sure if they were audio or video.

Changing OP here, however.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-largest-physical-thing-ever-lost-forgotten-about-misplaced/646185/62 "2013-01-08T23:33:49Z")

</div>

City of [Ur](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ur)? It was truly lost and was once the biggest city on the planet.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![UncleFred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f0a364/32.png) [@UncleFred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleFred)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-largest-physical-thing-ever-lost-forgotten-about-misplaced/646185/63 "2013-01-09T03:17:24Z")

</div>

I don’t have the details handy, but in Guns Germs and Steel Jard Diamond discusses a culture that lost, at sea, a massive stone wheel that served as the largest denomination of their currency - something like the ‘trillion dollar coin’ people are proposing now.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-largest-physical-thing-ever-lost-forgotten-about-misplaced/646185.md?page=3)