The Ark of the Covenant is one of the Bible’s holiest objects, and also one of its most intriguing archeological mysteries. Since its disappearance in 607 B.C speculation as to its whereabouts have been rampant; if the Ark is ever unearthed it would be the greatest archeological find — well, ever!

Ark Stats

According to the Biblical account, the Ark was built at the command of God, in accord with Moses’ prophetic vision on Mount Sinai. Made of acacia wood, the ark measured two and a half cubits long, and one and a half cubits deep and high. If the Egyptian royal cubit was used as the standard, this would make the Ark 4.3′ x 2.6′ x 2.6′ – somewhat smaller than what we’ve come to imagine from watching Raiders of the Lost Ark. Read More →

It is often said that behind every great fortune lies a great crime. The twisted tale of Yamashita’s gold, allegedly buried in the Philippine islands, is a story of a great fortune and many crimes that became inseparably intertwined.

The tale begins with Japan’s plundering of its neighbors before and during World War II. As the Germans did in Europe, the Japanese squeezed vast fortunes from their Asian domain, creating a river of riches flowing toward the homeland. The Japanese government intended that loot pilfered from Southeast Asia would finance their war effort.

This was not the haphazard looting of a rampaging army – it was a highly organized effort – perpetrated on a massive scale by some of Japans most prominent citizens; allegedly including Emperor Hirohito and yakuza gangsters such as Yoshio Kodama. Read More →

Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, standing before a firing squad, handed each of his executioners a gold coin and entreated them to shoot true… and preferably not in the head. The marksmen obliged, and on July 19, 1867, bullets ended Maximilian’s three-year career as Napoleon’s New World puppet.

Before his overthrow, the emperor had lived lavishly in his colonial empire. An Austrian archduke by birth, he had expensive tastes. So did his wife, Carlotta, and the two were thought to possess great wealth. But Maximilian’s fortune disappeared with his life.

Months before Maximilian’s execution he sent what was left of his personal fortune in Spanish, Austrian and American gold coin, gold and silver plate, and jewelry back to Austria.

The fortune never made it out of Texas — or so the story goes… Read More →

In February 1519 a fleet of eleven Spanish ships landed on the coast of Mexico near the modern day port of Vera Cruz. Onboard was a force of nearly six hundred Conquistadors; led by the infamous Hernán Cortés, they had come to Mexico to conquer the land and convert its people to Christianity in the name of the Holy Roman Church… And if they all got filthy rich in the process — that was okay too!

When news of the strange, white-skinned men reached the Aztec emperor, Montezuma, he must have been reminded of the prophecy of Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec sun god, which stated that one day the god would return to the land of the Aztec to claim his throne – and he would be known by his shining hair and white skin.

Montezuma dispatched servants bearing rich gifts for the newly arrived gods in hopes that they would go away and leave him in charge. But Montezuma’s plan backfired – when Cortés saw the precious objects, crafted from gold and silver, he knew he’d come to the right place – he immediately set his sights on the Aztec’s capitol city of Tenochtitlán, (present day Mexico City). Read More →

Between the years of 1217 and 1227 Genghis Khan’s bloody conquests created the largest contiguous land empire the world has ever known, and for a time, the great Khan was the richest, most powerful man on earth.

His treasury contained the pillaged wealth of China, India and Russia combined; jeweled Chinese weapons, gold coins from Samark and priceless religious artifacts from Russian Orthodox churches…

So… Where did all this treasure go?

Backstory

Genghis Khan was perhaps the greatest and most ruthless conqueror the world has ever know. More than three million people may have died during the bloody creation of his empire.

During his twenty year reign Khan subdued the Russian princes; his army conquered Persia, Asia Minor, Korea, South-East India, Indonesia, and China.

At the age of 65, during a campaign against the Chinese, the great Khan suffered a fatal fall from his horse, and in August of 1227 the mourning Mongol army abandoned the conflict to take their leader home.

After many months of pomp and ceremony, the body of the fallen ruler was loaded onto a giant oxcart and began its long journey towards the Khan’s final resting place. Surrounding the cart was a funeral procession 2,500 strong accompanied by a mounted bodyguard of 400 soldiers. Read More →

In the aftermath of the First Crusade of 1096 AD, a small group of French noblemen led by Hugues de Payens formed a monastic order of knights. Their mission was ostensibly, to make the roads of the holy land safe for Christian pilgrims – but protection of the holy land may have just been a cover story…

Many believe the Knights had actually traveled to the holy land in search of buried treasure!

It’s believed the Templars were in possession of an ancient scroll – a treasure map of sorts, pointing to the fabled treasures of King Solomon. So, it’s no surprise that the knights chose, as their command post, the captured Al Aqsa Mosque on Temple Mount – which just happened to be constructed right over the ruins of the second temple of King Solomon.

According to legend, the Templars spent the next nine years excavated beneath the ancient temple, eventually finding a vast network of tunnels – and then Solomon’s treasure.

There’s been much speculation about what the treasure consisted of – The Ark of the Covenant, massive hordes of gold from King Solomon’s Mines, or ancient texts revealing secret knowledge or the Holy Grail have all been suggested.

But there’s no doubt that they found something of enormous value, because upon their return to France in 1118 Pope Innocent II granted the order total freedom from every authority but his own.

With their newfound autonomy the Knights Templar quickly became the most powerful military organization in the medieval world. Read More →

Certainly, one of the most unique lost treasures of all time consists not of gold, silver or precious stones, but of amber – fossilized tree resin – over six tons of it.

Dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World by those who saw it, the Amber Room was one of the most beautiful and luxurious rooms ever built. The cavernous hall consisted of giant wall panels inlaid with over 100,000 pieces of pure, carved amber.

Arranged in three tiers, the amber panels were inlaid with precious jewels and acted as a backdrop for priceless gold-leaf mirrors, four magnificent Florentine mosaics and the most valuable collection of amber art pieces ever assembled. Today, the Amber Room would be valued at more than $250 million. Read More →

Deep in the remote mountains of central Ecuador, the largest undiscovered treasure in Latin America waits to be found. This ancient horde of Inca gold comes complete with a vengeful curse, multiple treasure maps and a trail of dead adventurers. With an estimated value of over two billion dollars, this stash of Inca Gold tops my list of lost treasures.

The Backstory – Conquest of the Incan Empire

In 1532 the Spanish Conquistador, Francisco Pizarro led 183 cold and hungry soldiers up the spine of the Andes and began his conquest of the Inca Empire. The empire was in a state of turmoil caused by a civil war between two brothers, Atahualpa and Huascar. Victory had recently gone to Atahualpa, the brother who controlled the northern half of the empire. Lucky for Pizarro, the long civil war had weakened the Inca’s army allowing the Spaniards to easily captured the newly appointed Emperor at his capitol city of Cajamarca.

With Atahualpa as their hostage, the Spaniards began sacking the city, stripping sacred religious objects from the temples of the sun and moon. Read More →

In the desolate wasteland of Arizona’s Superstition Mountains the remnants of an ancient volcano towers high above the barren landscape – a bright, shining beacon to prospectors and treasure hunters from around the world.

It’s called Weaver’s Needle, and for more than 120 years fortune seekers have been inexorably dawn to this ancient spire which, according to legend, holds the key to the richest and most famous treasures in the history of the American West… The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine.

In the last 120 years since it began, the legend of the Lost Dutchman’s Mine has been told and retold hundreds of times, morphing with each generation. There are now so many variations on the legend that it’s hard to know what’s fact and what is just the embellishment of some turn of the century newspaper reporter.

The one constant in all the variations seems to be Weavers Needle. All the Dutchman’s clues seem to focus around this rocky spire, and the search for treasure usually begins there.

Most experts agree that the mine, if it exists at all, will eventually be found in the dry, twisted tangle of canyons that surround the superstition mountains. So it’s there we will begin… Read More →

The Discovery

One spring day in 1795 Daniel McGinnis, then a teenager, was wandering around Oak Island, Nova Scotia when he came across a curious circular depression in the ground.

Standing over this depression was a tree whose branches had been cut in a way which looked like it had been used as a pulley. Having heard tales of pirates hiding their treasure in the area McGinnis hurried home to tell his friends. Over the next several days McGinnis and two other boys worked furiously on the hole. What they found astonished them. Read More →