トップ 未解決の宝の謎
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00:00Today, we're counting down 15 unresolved treasure mysteries.
00:04These stories of lost fortunes and hidden riches have captivated treasure hunters for
00:08centuries.
00:09Let's start with number 15, Fabergé eggs.
00:12Fabergé eggs are one of the most sought-out luxury antiques on the planet, a collection
00:17of egg-shaped jewels.
00:19They were created for the Russian royal family by Peter Carl Fabergé between 1885 and 1917.
00:25These 52 imperial eggs were his most famous.
00:28However, when the Bolshevik Revolution happened, most of them were confiscated by the new government.
00:33In the confusion, six of them simply disappeared.
00:37To this day, their whereabouts are unknown.
00:39However, if found, they would easily be worth more than $15 million.
00:45Number 14, Dutch Schultz's treasure.
00:48Dutch Schultz was a bad guy.
00:50Considered to be one of New York's most notorious and profitable gangsters during the 1920s
00:55and 1930s, he was eventually shot by higher-ups for disobeying orders and passed away not
01:00long after.
01:01Yet, before his death, it's been said that he managed to get his hands on a special airtight
01:05and waterproof safe.
01:07He reportedly placed $7 million in cash and bonds into it and hid it in New York's Catskill
01:13Mountains.
01:14Yet, to this day, nobody has ever managed to locate it.
01:18Number 13, the Ark of the Covenant.
01:21Of all the biblical relics out there, few are as important as the Lost Ark of the Covenant.
01:26It's said to hold the Ten Commandments given to God by Moses.
01:30For centuries, the Ark was in the hands of the Israelites.
01:33However, in 587 BC, the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and took the Ark of the Covenant
01:38with them.
01:39To this day, where it was hidden remains uncertain, making it one of the most spiritually significant
01:44lost treasures on the planet.
01:47Number 12, the Nazi Gold Train.
01:51While most experts say it's an urban legend, there is a chance that a train full of Nazi
01:56gold is out there.
01:58The story goes that in the final months of World War II, a Nazi-armored train laden with
02:03gold and other treasures left Poland bound for Germany.
02:06Yet, rather than reach its stated destination, it's believed to have entered either an abandoned
02:10coal mine or a tunnel system under a castle, which is part of an unfinished top-secret
02:16Nazi construction effort known as Project Reiss.
02:19If this train was found, it would reportedly have more than 300 tons of gold, jewels, weapons,
02:25and artistic masterpieces.
02:26Yet, to date, no evidence of its existence has been found.
02:31Number 11, the Honjo Masamune Sword.
02:34If your American grandparents fought in Japan, you may want to poke around your attic.
02:39That's because it may just be the resting place of the lost Honjo Masamune Sword.
02:43This sword was supposedly created by a master sword maker, Goro Nyudo Masamune in the 13th
02:48or 14th century, and it's named after Honjo Shigenaga, who took it as a prize after a
02:5316th century battle.
02:54The sword later came into the possession of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was notable for being
02:58the first shogun of Japan.
03:01While the sword was passed down through the Tokugawa family for generations, at the end
03:05of World War II, it was looted by American soldiers.
03:08And while it may have been destroyed, there's also a chance that it was covertly brought
03:12back to America.
03:14Number 10, Flor de la Mar.
03:17At its height, the Flor de la Mar was one of the prides of the Portuguese royal fleet,
03:21a treasure ship.
03:23Its main purpose was to ship goods between Portugal and India, and for about a decade,
03:27it managed to do this exceptionally well.
03:29However, it was when the ship had perhaps its greatest booty that it all went down the
03:33drain.
03:34You see, in 1510, she came under the command of a legendary general, statesman, and admiral,
03:39Alfonso de Albuquerque.
03:41Alfonso de Albuquerque had the ship in his fleet when he conquered Goa and Malacca, and
03:45after looting the palace of the Sultan of Malacca, filled this ship with his riches
03:49and sent it back to Portugal in late 1511.
03:52Yet the journey proved to be short-lived.
03:54After getting caught in a storm off the coast of Sumatra, the Flor de la Mar sank.
03:58While de Albuquerque managed to survive the disaster by escaping in an improvised raft,
04:04the cargo was lost.
04:05To this day, it lies undiscovered on the seabed, and it's still claimed by Portugal, Indonesia,
04:10and Malaysia, as all three countries hope to find and salvage the treasure to fill their
04:15own coffers.
04:169.
04:18The Tsar's Treasure In 1903, the RMS Republic collided with another
04:23ship off the coast of Massachusetts and sank.
04:26This was a problem because it reportedly housed some serious valuables.
04:30This included a loan repayment by Tsar Nicholas to U.S. banks that included over 40 tons of
04:35gold eagle coins, 7 tons of mixed coins to pay the U.S. Navy's Great White Fleet, and
04:41hundreds of millions of dollars in passenger valuables.
04:45While what exactly is left is unknown, in June, the shipwreck recovery company Lords
04:50of Fortune LLC is set to recover the ship.
04:53According to their estimates, there may be the modern equivalent of $10 billion in valuables
04:57on board.
04:58Now, what's interesting about this treasure is that it's been subject to a massive legal
05:03battle.
05:04When the treasure sank, the U.S. government opted to forgive Russia the debt.
05:08This was because Russia was on the brink of political and financial collapse, and due
05:12to the geopolitics of the day, it was important that Tsarist Russia be kept in power as a
05:17balance against Germany.
05:18However, this act of debt forgiveness caused the U.S. government to lay claim to all the
05:23gold aboard the ship as a form of repayment.
05:26Yet after 10 years of litigation, the court dismissed the U.S. government's claims with
05:30prejudice.
05:31This is because the U.S. government seized Tsarist assets after recognizing the Soviet
05:35Union in 1933.
05:37Therefore, if they were to take the gold, they would essentially be repaying themselves
05:41twice.
05:42As such, in 2011, Lords of Fortune LLC was awarded legal title to the wreck and all of
05:47her cargoes.
05:49While expensive legal battles aside, Lords of Fortune has quite the mountain to climb.
05:53After all, a minimum of $7.5 million is needed to reach the gold chamber, and the total expenses
05:58expected to fall in the range of $20 to $25 million.
06:02Yet if estimates of there being $10 billion in cargo are correct, then Lords of Fortune
06:07will become obscenely wealthy.
06:09However, if these estimates are off, then the Lords of Fortune will be in a multi-million
06:13dollar hole.
06:16Number 8.
06:17The Great Bell of Damaseddi In the late 15th century, Myanmar was in the
06:21middle of a golden age, and it was with this wealth that King Damaseddi decided to create
06:26a massive bell.
06:27Upon this announcement, the king's astrologer advised him to postpone its creation.
06:32After all, they were at an inauspicious time of the Crocodile Constellation, and he predicted
06:37the bell wouldn't produce any sound.
06:39Well, yet despite the astrologer's protest, the king went ahead with his plan, and clearly,
06:44this was to his detriment.
06:45First and foremost, the bell apparently made an unpleasant sound.
06:49But despite this, the king planned to have it mounted, and at roughly 6 meters by 4 meters,
06:54it was the largest bell ever produced, and it was made of medley of silver, copper, gold,
06:59and tin.
07:00Thus, with little ado, it was put atop a pagoda.
07:03This is a great gilded stupa, or temple, which survives to this day.
07:07And by all accounts, it looked incredible.
07:09However, the bell wouldn't stay there for long.
07:11By the 1600s, Myanmar's kingdom had begun to falter, and by taking advantage of internal
07:16cultural divisions, a Portuguese warlord and mercenary by the name of Felipe de Brito took
07:21advantage of the situation to take control of the area and steal the bell.
07:25De Brito and his men rolled it down a hill, put it on a raft, and had it tugged by a team
07:30of elephants to a nearby river, and then attached it to his flagship for the journey across
07:35the river to a place where it would be melted down and made into a cannon.
07:39Unfortunately for de Brito, it proved way too heavy, and at the confluence of the Bago
07:44and Yangon rivers, the raft broke up and the bell sank to the bottom, taking Brito's ship
07:48with it.
07:50While finding the bell may sound rather easy, its location is actually quite difficult to
07:54determine.
07:55After all, there are at least three shipwrecks in that area, the water is muddy, and visibility
07:59is extremely poor.
08:00In fact, the bell could be buried in up to eight meters of mud, making it near impossible
08:04to find.
08:05Yet, in spite of the challenges, professional deep-sea diver James Blunt has made 115 exploratory
08:10dives using sonar images of objects in the area for guidance, yet even he has been unsuccessful,
08:16taking the chances of any average Joe finding the thing to be slim to none.
08:22Moving on to number seven, the Second Temple Menorah.
08:24Of all the entries on this list, the oldest is the one and only Second Temple Menorah.
08:30While its value is historical rather than strictly financial, this missing Jewish artifact
08:35is of immense spiritual significance and would probably grant fame and fortune to the lucky
08:39soul who managed to find it.
08:41For those of you not up to speed on Jewish religious tradition, the Menorah is, in essence,
08:45a seven-branched candelabrum.
08:48It is described in both the Hebrew Bible and later in ancient sources as having been used
08:52in the tabernacle and in the Temple of Jerusalem.
08:55Since ancient times, it has been a symbol of the Jewish people.
08:58Meaning lamp in Hebrew, the ancient Menorah has seven branches, one for each day of creation,
09:03and for years it burned when the main Jewish temple in Jerusalem.
09:07While it was meant to be an everlasting light, an oil lamp that was never supposed to go
09:11out.
09:12When the Greek Assyrian Empire took the city in 167 BC, they outlawed Judaism.
09:17As a result, the Menorah was forcibly snuffed out.
09:20In response, a small group of resistors known as the Maccabees rebelled.
09:25Over several years, they managed to take back the temple and relight the Menorah.
09:29As the story goes, one day's worth of oil miraculously lasted for eight days, thus representing
09:34the strength of Judaism in both the Land of Israel and the Diasporum.
09:39According to the Hebrew Bible, the original Menorah was made out of pure gold and only
09:43burned with fresh olive oil.
09:45While it was a lively light for hundreds of years, in 66 AD tensions flared when the Jews
09:50in the area revolted against their Roman overlords.
09:53This led to a siege of Jerusalem in 69 AD, and in 70 AD, Jerusalem fell to the Romans.
09:59In order to celebrate this victory, the Menorah was put out and taken to Rome.
10:03In fact, the Arch of Titus, which still stands today, famously depicts the Menorah being
10:08carried away by the triumphant Romans, along with other spoils of the destroyed temple.
10:13From here, though, history gets a bit hazy.
10:15In 455, the Menorah was reportedly taken to Carthage by the Vandals after the sacking
10:20of Rome.
10:21In 533, Byzantine historian Procopius reported that the Byzantine army recovered it and brought
10:27it back to Constantinople, then later returned it to Jerusalem, yet the evidence of this
10:32is not perfectly clear, and to date, its true location is still unknown.
10:386.
10:39The First Qin Emperor Unlike almost every other entry on this list,
10:43we know exactly where this treasure is located.
10:46The treasure in question is that of the First Qin Emperor.
10:50Found in China's Shaanxi province near the ancient capital of Chang'an, it was built
10:54from 246 to 208 BC, and it was the resting place of a great man.
10:59After all, it was the First Qin Emperor who unified China, began construction of the Great
11:03Wall, and notably, to our story, prepared for death by constructing a 50-square-kilometer
11:08funerary compound underneath a 76-meter-tall pyramid.
11:13Now for years, the tomb sat forgotten, however, on March 29th of 1974, a group of local farmers
11:19were digging a well when out of nowhere they uncovered the roof of the structure.
11:24The inside was absolutely incredible.
11:26The tomb had a massive terracotta army consisting of approximately 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots,
11:32and 520 horses.
11:34The idea was that this would be the army that would protect the deceased emperor in the
11:38afterlife, and since these statues are styled after Chinese soldiers of the era, they have
11:43revealed a lot about how Chinese troops looked at the time.
11:47If that wasn't crazy enough, this wasn't a simple copy-and-paste kind of a job.
11:51Every single statue has been found to be totally unique, right down to the facial features,
11:56hairstyle, clothing, and pose.
11:58Unsurprisingly, though, UNESCO has since classified the mausoleum as a World Heritage Site, yet
12:04it turns out that not all of its treasures have been uncovered yet.
12:07That's because the tomb itself remains unexcavated, lying within an inner wall and beneath a four-sided
12:13pyramid mound that was originally landscaped to appear as a low, wooded mountain.
12:18It's reportedly home to a vast underground palace.
12:21In fact, according to the record, about 700,000 conscripted workmen labored for more than
12:2636 years to complete it, and it's reportedly home to three subterranean streams, models
12:31of pavilions, and even offices filled with precious stones and rarities.
12:36And in order to protect both it and the actual burial chamber, there are apparently mechanically-triggered
12:41crossbows set to shoot any intruders, making it pretty well-defended.
12:45Thus, while this mausoleum may seem like a great treasure, it has, for now, remained
12:50unopened.
12:51It will likely remain this way for a while, after all, before doing any further, the Chinese
12:55government would like to find a way to excavate the site that won't cause any unnecessary
12:59damage.
13:005.
13:01The Treasure of Amaro Pargo During his lifetime, Amaro Pargo was a dangerous
13:08guy.
13:09He was considered to be one of the most notorious corsairs during Spain's golden age of piracy.
13:14He was somewhere between a soldier and a pirate.
13:16After all, while he worked for the Spanish crown, he was able to capture foreign ships
13:20at times of war.
13:22And capture he did, prowling the route between Cadiz and the Caribbean.
13:25On several occasions, he attacked ships belonging to Spain's enemies, most notably those from
13:30England and Holland.
13:32He was so prolific that he came to be regarded as the Spanish equivalent of Francis Drake,
13:36and he was even given certification of nobility and royal arms in 1727 in recognition of his
13:42services to the crown.
13:43While his family was affluent, Amaro Pargo eventually had an affinity for the less fortunate.
13:49After all, he was famous for his frequent religious donations.
13:52As you might imagine, a man like Amaro Pargo had a lot of money, and in his will, he wrote
13:57that he had much of it in a box that he kept in his cabin.
14:01This box of treasure contained his spoils of war, including silver, gold, jewelry, pearls,
14:07and precious stones, all of which were itemized in a book wrapped in parchment and marked
14:12with the letter D. Yet, to date, both the location of the book and the treasure within
14:17remain unknown.
14:18Over the years, the house of Amaro Pargo has been ransacked by treasure hunters, while
14:23others have looked for it in a cave of San Mateo.
14:25Yet, despite these efforts, the treasure has not been located and it is still up for grabs.
14:31It is worth noting, though, that in November of 2013, a team of scientists did some forensic
14:35work on Pargo's body in a bid to learn more about him.
14:38When his tomb was exhumed, the team made a discovery.
14:42While the historic record noted that Pargo was buried alongside his parents and a servant,
14:47his burial site contained six more people alongside some incomplete remains of babies.
14:53It's believed that some of these people were nephews or great-nephews of Amaro Pargo, and
14:57while this likely came from the belief that it was necessary to bury unbaptized children
15:01next to an adult, it's said that the adult would guide them to heaven.
15:05In any case, this exhumation didn't reveal any additional clues about the treasure, making
15:10its location anyone's guess.
15:134.
15:14The Fenn Treasure While the Fenn Treasure was located a few
15:18years ago, the mystique surrounding it gives it a spot on this list.
15:22The Fenn Treasure is named after a certain Forrest Fenn.
15:26Fenn began his working life as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force.
15:29He spent much of his time fighting in Vietnam, where he flew over 300 combat missions and
15:33attained the rank of Major.
15:35After his retirement from the Air Force, him, his wife, and a business partner opened up
15:39an art gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
15:42The shop sold a variety of Native American artifacts, paintings, bronze sculptures, and
15:46other art, and reportedly grossed over $6 million a year.
15:50Yet in 1988, tragedy struck when Fenn was diagnosed with cancer, given a prognosis that
15:56was likely terminal.
15:57This prognosis inspired him to create a treasure with the purpose of creating a public search
16:02for it.
16:03After recovering from the illness, he hid the treasure, and in 2010 self-published a
16:06book called The Thrill of the Chase, a memoir.
16:10The book contained a collection of short stories from his life, and in it he described
16:14a treasure chest that he said contained gold nuggets, rare coins, jewelry, and gemstones.
16:19He said that he hid the chest in, quote-unquote, the mountains somewhere north of Santa Fe,
16:24and he hid a bunch of clues in the book to help potential treasure hunters figure out
16:28its whereabouts.
16:29As you might imagine, Fenn's book and story prompted a treasure hunt in the rocky mountains
16:33of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana.
16:36Ten years after the book came out, Fenn confirmed in 2020 that former journalist and medical
16:41student Jack Stouff had found the treasure.
16:44In December of 2022, its contents were auctioned off for $1.3 million, making Mr. Stouff rich
16:50overnight.
16:51Best of all, Fenn was 90 years old and alive when the treasure was found, granting him
16:55the privilege of seeing his mission completed.
16:58Now it's worth noting that there has been quite a bit of controversy surrounding the
17:02search for the treasure.
17:03There were multiple cases of people getting in trouble with the law on their search, be
17:07that by damaging cultural heritage items or destroying state property.
17:11There were also some tragic events.
17:13Five people passed away while looking for it, while others had to be rescued out in
17:17the wilderness.
17:18In any case, while the treasure has been found, there are still some mysteries surrounding
17:21it.
17:22After all, while it's been revealed that the treasure was in Wyoming, as per Forrest
17:25Fenn's wishes, its exact location was never released to the public.
17:303.
17:32The Treasure of Montezuma The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
17:36was a brutal exercise in colonialism.
17:39Yet despite the military superiority, Spain's attempt to extract some of the Aztec capital's
17:44best treasures ended up in disaster.
17:47The story goes that when Cortez's expedition arrived at the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan
17:51on November 8th of 1519, they took up residence in a specially designated compound in the
17:57city.
17:58Shortly thereafter, suspecting treachery on the part of their hosts, the Spaniards took
18:02Montezuma II, who was the Aztec king, hostage.
18:05While Moctezuma assured his people that he had been ordered by the gods to move in with
18:09the Spaniards, and he had done so willingly, the people of the city suspected otherwise.
18:14In any case, an impending Spanish army sent to bring Cortez down a notch forced Cortez
18:18to leave the city to face them in battle.
18:21In his absence, he appointed Lieutenant Pedro de Alvarado as a commander of the city and
18:26left him in charge of about 160 Spanish reserves.
18:29While Cortez was away, de Alvarado heard rumors that the locals planned to slaughter their
18:34unwelcome Spanish overlords at the Festival of Toxcatl.
18:37In response, Alvarado decided to mount a preemptive strike.
18:41On May 20th, he ordered his men to attack the unarmed Aztec nobles assembled at the
18:46festival.
18:47This led to thousands of Aztec casualties, and in response, enraged populace went on
18:51the offensive, barricading Alvarado and the surviving Spaniards inside the palace.
18:56Although Cortez and his men were able to reinforce them after winning the battle and
18:59returning to the city, the situation was dire.
19:02In a bid to stop the fighting, Cortez dragged a reluctant Montezuma to the rooftop to appeal
19:07to his people for peace.
19:09This tactic had worked before, however, this time around, his people were having none of
19:13it.
19:14The assembled Aztecs launched stones and arrows at him, leading to Montezuma being mortally
19:19wounded and passing away soon after.
19:21At this point, the Spanish realized that their position was indefensible and decided it was
19:25time to escape.
19:27His men loaded themselves up with stolen riches and attempted to escape at night, since Cortez
19:32knew that the Aztecs only liked to fight during the daytime.
19:35This proved to be a costly misunderstanding, and his men were promptly attacked.
19:40While Cortez and his vanguard survived, most did not live to tell the tale.
19:45Now here's where things get interesting.
19:46In the confusion, many of the Spanish abandoned their heavy gold bars.
19:50While some were reacquired by the Aztec warriors, many sunk to the bottom of the lake.
19:55When the Spanish recaptured Tenochtitlan several months later, they would try to locate
19:59this treasure.
20:00Yet, this was in vain, as they simply couldn't find all the gold.
20:04While there is a chance that the Aztecs found all their stolen valuables, there's also a
20:07chance that some of it was lost in the surrounding area.
20:11So while it may be difficult to find, a trip there could end up being very lucrative.
20:162.
20:17The Treasure of the Langonates Francisco Pizarro was the man behind the
20:21Spanish conquest of the Incas, and in true conquistador fashion, the thing he loved above
20:27all else was gold.
20:28Thus, when he captured the Inca king Atahualpa, he struck a deal.
20:32In exchange for a room filled with gold and another equally large room filled with silver,
20:38Pizarro agreed to grant Atahualpa his freedom.
20:41Now the reality of the situation is that this was probably a money grab.
20:44After all, it's more likely than not that Pizarro would have just kept Atahualpa in prison
20:49anyway.
20:50The king likely saw this as his only way out, and ordered an Inca general by the name of
20:53Rumenuhui to deliver the gold for him.
20:56However, Pizarro didn't trust anyone, and instead of waiting to decide to renege on
21:00the promise and put an end to the king's life before the last and largest ransom payment
21:04was delivered, upon hearing this, the general, who was in the process of transporting an
21:09enormous amount of gold, decided to stop in his tracks.
21:13Rather than deliver the goods, he opted to hide the gold deep in the rainforest.
21:16He sent his porters east to the areas that even today are uninhabited, while he himself
21:21is believed to have buried some treasure in either a cave or a lake.
21:25Now the story of this gold is steeped in legend.
21:27There's a lot of doubt as to what the specifics are, however, what most stories seem to corroborate
21:32is that most of the treasure is hidden in the Langanates, a remote mountain range lying
21:36at an altitude between 2,500 and 4,000 meters.
21:40It's located on the eastern edge of Ecuador's Avenue of Volcanoes, which is an area where
21:44remote highlands straddle the dense vegetation of the Amazon.
21:48According to reports, the first person to come across some treasure was a Spaniard by
21:52the name of Valverde.
21:53The story goes that about 50 years after Atahualpa's death, his Incan bride's family told him where
21:59some of the gold lay.
22:00He became rich as a result, and when he died, he left a series of written directions to
22:04its location that are collectively known as the Derotero del Valverde.
22:08On his deathbed, he reportedly bequeathed the Derotero to the Spanish crown, yet the
22:13search party sent out to find the treasure was unsuccessful.
22:16The story of the treasure remained rather dormant until about 1850.
22:19It was in this year that an English botanist named Richard Spruce traveled to Ecuador to
22:24study the Chinchona tree, whose seeds were a key ingredient in the anti-malarial drug
22:29quinine.
22:30While he managed to do a lot of good, after all, he recorded a plethora of different plants
22:33and made historically helpful records of the languages of 21 different indigenous tribes,
22:38he also managed to unearth what is said to be Valverde's account on an accompanying map.
22:44This was reportedly a copy drawn by a certain Anastasio Guzman.
22:48Antonio was a botanist by trade and had allegedly created the map using clues provided by Valverde.
22:53In 1861, Richard Spruce published the findings in the Journal of the Royal Geographic Society
22:58of London, and 36 years later, treasure hunters Barth Blake and Lieutenant George Edward Chapman
23:03embarked on an adventure.
23:05Blake claimed to have found the treasure.
23:07In his letters, he wrote findings, thousands of pieces of gold and silver alongside vases
23:12filled with emeralds.
23:14Blake took some of the riches with him, with the intention of returning to bring back more.
23:17However, while en route to New York, he was reportedly pushed overboard and never seen again.
23:22Ever since, many have tried to find this treasure, but seemingly all people have failed.
23:27Some have even lost their lives in the attempt.
23:29Mark Honigsbaum, one of the last credible scholars to make the trip, put it well when
23:33he said, quote, We're dealing with the frontier land between fact and fiction.
23:38We know Atahualpa's gold existed because it's recorded in the Spanish Chronicle, and it's
23:43recorded that a large convoy of gold was on its way from Ecuador.
23:47After that, the best and most persistent stories revolve around the Langanates.
23:51My own feeling, though, is that gold was probably taken out centuries ago.
23:55If not, and it's still there, I think it's lost forever, because those mountains are
23:59so vast and inaccessible that you're looking for a needle in a haystack.
24:041. The Treasure of Lima
24:07Peru is home to the mighty Incan Empire, which was a civilization known for its advanced
24:12knowledge of math, astronomy, and building techniques.
24:16Yet beyond being well-versed in the sciences, the Incan Empire was also laden with gold,
24:22and it was this gold that caught the eye of the Spanish conquistadors.
24:25In a matter of years, they took advantage of civil unrest to essentially bring down
24:29the empire and bring the lands of the Inca under their control, and in the process they
24:34amassed untold amounts of wealth.
24:37It was this wealth that made Spain one of the richest countries on the planet, yet this
24:41windfall didn't last forever.
24:43By the 1800s, Spain began to have difficulties controlling its colonies due to wars of independence
24:48in South America.
24:50Lima was no exception, and in 1820, the city came under heavy pressure and had to be evacuated
24:55by the Spaniards during the Peruvian War of Independence.
24:59The Spanish saw such an event as inevitable, and so months before, the Viceroy of Lima
25:03decided to transport the city's fabulous wealth to the more stable colony of Mexico for safekeeping.
25:10The treasures included jewels, stones, candlesticks, and two life-size solid gold statues of Mary
25:16holding the baby Jesus.
25:18All told, the treasure is believed to be worth the modern equivalent of about $273 million.
25:23Unfortunately for the Spanish crowd, they chose the wrong man for the transport job.
25:28Rather than enlisting one of their own, they hired British Captain William Thompson to
25:32do the deed.
25:33This proved to be a mistake after Thompson and his crew opted to turn pirate, ending
25:38the lives of all the Spanish soldiers and priests on board and taking the treasure for
25:43themselves.
25:44In order to keep it safe, Thompson and his men headed for Cocos Island off the coast
25:47of present-day Costa Rica.
25:49It's here that the men allegedly buried the treasure.
25:52Plan was for the men to split it up and lie low until the situation had calmed down, allowing
25:56them to return and divvy up the spoils at a later date.
25:59Those plans were dashed when Thompson's ship was captured by the Spanish and sent to trial
26:04for piracy.
26:06In a plea deal, Captain Thompson and his first mate, James Alexander Forbes, escaped hanging
26:11in exchange for leading the Spanish to the stolen treasure.
26:14They took them to the islands, but once landing, escaped into the jungle, never to be seen
26:19again.
26:20While there are reports that Captain Thompson settled in California and first made Forbes
26:24in Newfoundland, nobody knows for sure, and to this day, the whereabouts of the treasure
26:28are a mystery.
26:29Now, there's a good chance that the men went to their stash and took at least some of the
26:33treasure with them.
26:34However, given their situation as fugitives, it's difficult to believe they would have
26:38been able to carry all the treasure back.
26:40This means that some of it is still likely buried, and probably on Cocos Island.
26:45As you might imagine, the dream of riches has lured many a treasure hunter.
26:49The first recorded treasure hunting expedition was that of John Keating.
26:53He supposedly befriended Thompson, and at some point, Thompson gave him a map to the
26:57treasure.
26:58Keating claims to have retrieved some of the gold and jewels, however, like Thompson, he
27:02couldn't take all of it, and on his deathbed, Keating said that a massive amount of treasure
27:06still lay there.
27:07The next major treasure finder was a certain August Gissler.
27:11This German had brought together a group of tobacco farmers, and after some propositioning,
27:14the Costa Rican government allowed him to set up a colony on their behalf.
27:19From 1889 to 1908, he lived on the island, dedicating much of his time to finding the
27:23treasure.
27:24Yet, despite his multi-year effort, all he had were six gold coins to show for it.
27:30In fact, to date, nobody has publicly announced that they've found the treasure, and while
27:34there is a chance that it's no longer there at all, if it is, the potential profits would
27:38be massive.
27:39It's also worth noting that the treasure of Lima may not be the only set of valuables
27:43stashed on this island.
27:44One such example is the treasure of Benito Bonito.
27:48Throughout his pirating career, he allegedly stole over 300 tons of gold, and according
27:52to legend, buried his treasures in a deep tunnel in the Wafer Bay area on Cocos Island.
27:57Yet, his treasure has never been found, and according to some historians, it's more than
28:01likely than not that Bonito is simply a mythical figure.
28:05In any case, it's worth mentioning that the Costa Rican government has banned entry due
28:10to the more than 500 expeditions that have attempted to strike it rich on the island.
28:14So, if you want to find a treasure like this for yourself, you'll have to get the permission
28:18from the Costa Rican government, which in all likelihood would be extremely challenging.
28:23Thanks for watching, everyone.
28:24I'll see you in Costa Rica.
28:27Thank you to our channel members.