One of the wives of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II was very homesick for his homeland, the Medes. The young queen dreamed of green mountains that she had to leave. Then the king decided to console his wife, giving her ... gardens, broken on an artificial mountain - a huge architectural structure. Plants brought from Mussels were irrigated using a complex engineering system. When, a few centuries later, Alexander the Great came to these hot lands, his people were amazed by the real miracle. True, the real name of the queen, who received a luxurious gift, had already been forgotten. Therefore, the ancient Greeks who conquered Babylon linked this story with the name of Queen Semiramis, the beloved of another Babylonian king. They called the gardens the hanging gardens of Semiramis and ranked them as one of the seven wonders of the world. Unfortunately, after Alexander of Macedon, Babylon fell into decay, and with it the gardens. Now archaeologists only guess which of the traces of the ancient civilization they had excavated could have been legendary gardens. But the fashion for architectural gardens has taken root even in our frosty terrain, and today you can get as a gift a wonderful winter garden, broken, for example, on the roof of a house.

The fate of another gift, which was received by the favorite of the French king, glorified by Madame Pompadour, turned out to be happier - its history continues to this day. The 18th-century trendsetter asked Louis XV to present her with a small porcelain manufactory in Vincennes. The move was not trivial: instead of one, even the most sophisticated service of the Marquis, she was able to manage the affairs of the manufacture at her own discretion, which, by the way, were not in the best condition at that time. She transferred the porcelain production from Vincennes to Sevres, where the Royal Porcelain Manufactory literally flourished. In 1757, a unique glaze color was invented in Sevres, named after the favorite of the king - the “pink Pompadour”. This pink color, along with the "royal blue" (named after Louis XV), became the hallmark of the Sevres manufactory and the envy of all competitors who struggled in vain to unravel its secret. Only a hundred years later, in the middle of the 19th century, the secret of color was discovered, but by this time the authority of the Royal Manufactory was already unshakable. Sevres manufactory exists to this day, and porcelain rarities of the Madame Pompadour era are not only kept in the collections of famous museums, but also themselves become ideal gifts.

On November 20, 1947, Her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth of York, heiress of the British monarchy, and respectable young officer Philippe Montbatten, prince of Greece and Danish, decided to get married. About this couple did not say - exclaimed: Splendid! (Gorgeous!) Wedding gifts were brought from over seven seas. The history is silent on most of them. But one thing is known that he became loved. These are the famous Splendid glasses made of crystal from the Moser manufactory, each of which was coated with the monogram of a young princess. These ceremonial glasses of fine handmade work with a brilliant-cut and gilded inlay could not be better suited to a brilliant crowned couple. Knowing the price of true masterpieces, the queen still asks to serve Moser's Splendid glasses only for the most solemn occasions. They say that now Elizabeth II is already preparing for a diamond wedding, the anniversary of which will be in 2007.

The real legend is the yacht presented by Hollywood film actor Richard Burton in 1967 to his star wife Elizabeth Taylor. Congratulating her with the award of the Oscar, Barton presented Elizabeth the yacht, which is part of the hundred largest vessels of this level. The 164-foot yacht was built in 1906 and equipped with the latest technology. Elizabeth Taylor luxuriously decorated interiors in a typical Hollywood style. The couple gave the yacht the name "Kaliz", composing it from the names of their children from previous marriages: three daughters - Kate, Elizabeth and Mary. But when, in 1974, the couple decided to leave, Elizabeth Taylor sold the boat. In the 90s, the boat was restored, and for seven and a half million dollars it was bought by Indian magnate Vijay Malia. And at the end of 2004, the one-hundred-year-old yacht was bought from him by the idol of our era, actor Brad Pitt, to make a gift to his wife, actress Jennifer Aniston. Now she has to take care of the decoration of this vessel, because if you follow the example of Elizabeth Taylor, you must constantly update the interiors of the legendary yacht!

Gifts can be not just very expensive, they can be a colossal size. And such a gift is much more likely to go down in history. Take, for example, a huge female statue - the Statue of Liberty. This is also a gift from the French to the Americans. The French lawyer Edouard Rene Lefevre de Laboulaye, in the middle of the nineteenth century, decided to embody the friendship of France and America in a certain symbol. The sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, who Labulaié commissioned to create the sculpture, called it "Freedom, bringing light to the world." Work on the statue was completed in 1884 in Paris, where Freedom on July 4 was solemnly presented to American representatives. After that, the monument was dismantled, transported to New York and re-assembled there. The following year, the Americans, who then lived in Paris, in turn, presented the city with a 10-fold reduced Statue of Liberty. It has even become a whole tradition - since then about 200 copies of the famous monument have appeared in the world. However, (apart from gifts at the state level), presenting a statue as a gift is unusual, but quite affordable.

Another episode of American history suggests that a gift, known to the whole world, does not have to be colossal. He may well be soft and shaggy, seemingly quite frivolous, like a teddy bear. This toy was invented in Germany (according to legend, fashion designer Margareta Steyf, who sewed the first such bear as a gift to children for Christmas in 1879). But Teddy received his nickname in the 20th century, in honor of US President Theodore Roosevelt. It was like this: the press service of Roosevelt published a touching story, as the president, hunting, took pity on the bear cub. The popularity of this story was so great that Roosevelt personally allowed me to call the party of teddy bears his diminutive, "home" name. Teddy-bear became a symbol of his election campaign, after which Roosevelt was re-elected for a second term. Therefore, when the daughter of the President of America was about to get married ... no, he did not give her a bear as a wedding gift, but ordered to decorate the wedding table with happy Teddy bears for him. Nowadays, vintage toys are often the subject of collectors hunting. It is worth trying your luck and handing a teddy bear as a gift - and there is always a reason for that.

Although predicting the fate of a gift is difficult. Everyone knows the history of diamond pendants, described in paints by Dumas Sr.. It was them received as a gift from her husband, the French king Louis XIII, Anna of Austria. Carried away by the duke of Buckingham and deciding to help him, the queen rather recklessly gave the duke a gift of an unloved husband. In a rosewood box, diamonds left for London with Buckingham. And it is still not known what consequences this would have led (even to military actions!), If not for courage and find