In Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Professor Aronax asks Captain Nemo the question: "Are you very rich?" The captain replies: "I am immeasurably rich, and could, without difficulty and without impoverishment, close the ten billion dollar national debt of France." And that is to say, Captain Nemo had all the underwater treasures at his disposal!
Treasures are still being sought, found, and thanks to them they are reclaiming its secrets from the sea. And why, in fact, only by the sea? No less fascinating and exciting mysteries are associated with lakes.
Sunken El Dorado
The expeditions of Fernando Cortez and Francisco Pizarro, who landed on the territory of the Indians, were catastrophically thinned out due to the intolerable climate, unknown diseases, bites of poisonous insects and snakes, poisoned arrows and insidious traps of the Indians. There were so few of them against this alien world! And other people, less greedy and brave, would have turned back long ago. But gold! It attracted uncontrollably. It was impossible to resist this imperious call.
The Spaniards themselves collected the legend of El Dorado, the golden country, from the fragments of myths and rumors picked up here and there. They were looking for this fabulous country, but they never found it. Or maybe they were looking in the wrong place and Eldorado is not a myth at all? It was necessary to look in the lakes! However, the Spaniards probably guessed about it, but still could not do anything. They didn't have diving equipment! They could not help but hear, for example, stories about the treasures of the Titicaca salt lake, the largest in South America. The ruins of the ancient city of Tiaguanaco with the grandiose "Gates of the Sun" adorned with reliefs of unseen animals are still piled on its banks. However, this is interesting for archaeologists, but where is the gold? It is possible that it is very close. In the 60s of the last century, a group of Argentine scuba divers allegedly discovered a part of the city that had been sunken in time immemorial at the bottom. According to their reports, they saw the pavement, all paved with gold slabs, as well as the ruins of palaces richly decorated with gold. Only now they could not get closer because of strong underwater currents and sudden temperature changes.
How not to get excited! And the next expedition was led by none other than Jacques-Yves Cousteau himself. Alas! Absolutely nothing was found to confirm the information of the Argentines. The pavement, however, was found, but the most common stone one. And what stories the Indians told about Lake Titicaca! As if the gods, angry for something against the inhabitants of Tiahuanaco, sent a terrible earthquake, and the most luxurious quarters of the city disappeared under water. And before, from the heights, a view of magnificent gardens was opened, where all flowers, trees, branches, leaves, fruits were of the purest gold and silver. And still deep at the bottom of the lake rests a multi-ton gold ingot. According to legend, the Incas melted most of their treasures into it, so that the Spaniards would not get it, and drowned it. But no one has yet reached this ingot. It is not proven that this is not fiction,nor has the opposite been confirmed.
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Lake Guatavita Gold
Titicaca is far from the only lake where one could hope to find the underwater Eldorado. A lake called Parima (aka Manoa) and marked on maps from the 16th to the 19th centuries fell under suspicion. There was no unity about its coordinates. They were placed either in the Amazonian jungle, or in Guyana, or on the slopes of the Andes. But the greatest attention was attracted by the Colombian Lake Guatavita, located in the crater of an extinct volcano. It is worth telling more about him and the legends that enveloped him.
The Spaniards eagerly devoured tales of the "golden man", the ruler of a fantastically rich country. Every morning he allegedly sprinkles his body with the finest golden sand, and every evening he takes a bath in the lake waters. At the same time, golden gifts are thrown into the lake. And the very bottom of the lake is lined with gold, and huge emeralds are inserted at the joints of the plates.
Oddly enough, this legend has a completely real origin. In the northwestern Andes, where Colombia is now located, the Muisca tribe lived, who spoke the Chibcha language. The Muisks were a very advanced people, so to speak. They knew how to make amazingly beautiful gold jewelry. They worshiped the sun and water, and they really showered the high priest (also the ruler) with golden sand and bathed in the lake. And the gifts poured into the water in fact. These were gold cups, rings, dishes, figurines, necklaces, often lavishly decorated with precious stones. True, this ceremony was by no means daily, but special, held only in honor of the accession to the throne of another priest-ruler. But she was! This is confirmed by excavations on the shores of Lake Guatavita. Many gold items have been foundcrafted with the finest art of jewelry. If so much is left on the shore, how much can you get from the depths! Unfortunately, underwater research is hampered by the very complex topography of the lake bottom. There are many karst caves, and the bottom seems to be multi-layered, there is still water under the next layer, it is not known how deep.
In the 16th century, the lands and waters of the Muisca were conquered by the conquistador Jimenez de Quesada. He wasted no time and approached the matter radically, deciding to cut a tunnel in the slope of an extinct volcano, drain the lake and take the treasures. By his order, 20 thousand Indians were herded to work. Alas, the attempt ended in failure in the literal sense of the word. The tunnel collapsed, costing the lives of many slaves and Quesada himself.
Forty years have passed, and the banner that fell from the hands of Quesada was picked up by the energetic merchant Supelveda. He obtained permission to hunt for the treasures of Lake Guatavita from the Spanish king himself. Mindful of the failure of its predecessor, Supelveda did not dig tunnels, but cut an inclined channel in the rock, through which water flowed out. And - lo and behold! - in the bottom mud, which she carried with her, came across gold jewelry. However, the Spanish king, having heard about this, realized that in this way all the treasures could go to an enterprising merchant, and ordered to stop the work, and fill the canal. He hoped to send a more reliable team to the lake in the future, but something prevented these plans from coming true. Modern expeditions are still only at the stage of ideas. Lake Eldorado awaits.
Napoleon's treasure
From distant mysterious South America we move closer to us both in space and in time - to Russia during the war with Napoleon. About thirty kilometers from Vyazma Lake Semlevskoe is located, it is also Stoyachee. It is curious why exactly it is Standing, where you saw "flowing" lakes, not rivers after all. Okay, it's not the name that matters. There, enthusiasts are looking for treasure.
When the French took over Moscow, they confiscated countless treasures in the churches and the Kremlin. But where did these treasures go then? They did not arrive in Paris, they did not return to Moscow. Numerous attempts to find traces of them in other cities and villages were unsuccessful. Where did Napoleon go? Gold is not some "securities" for you, which are valuable today, but tomorrow, you see, they will go to kindling. According to legend, Napoleon, seeing that the remnants of his exhausted army could not take out a heavy load, ordered the treasures to be drowned in this very Lake Semlev. Just like that, on the territory of a hostile state? Doubtful, of course. Or did he expect to return soon for them? Very presumptuous of him. But, maybe, just so that the enemies do not get the wealth. One way or another, but a legend is a legend, one cannot expect much from it. However, data confirming it also appeared.
It is not so easy to directly search for the submerged treasure at the bottom of Lake Semlevskoye. The bottom is covered with a thick layer of silt, according to some estimates, up to 20 meters. Plus peat along the banks, five meters, dig there. But in 1961, an amateur search party arrived at the lake. Its core was made up of scientists from the Research Institute of Hydrology and students of Moscow State University, equipped with advanced equipment for those times. Measurements showed a high percentage of dissolved gold and silver in the water. Natural factors were excluded, because there are no deposits of precious metals in these parts, not the Klondike. Scuba divers to this day do not give up hope to overcome the multi-meter silt. While all is in vain. Although the precise equipment could deceive the researchers. This happens, especially when you really want to take wishful thinking.
I recall the case of the German scientist Erwin Neustadt, who dreamed of extracting gold from sea water. In publications, he wrote that the gold content in the sea is "less than 70 milligrams per ton". Seventy, well, even a little less is already significant! And during the checks it turned out that not just "less", but much less. It is, of course, possible to isolate this gold, but commercially it is completely unprofitable. So the enthusiasts of Lake Semlevskoye could well become victims of tempting self-deception.
Seek and find
“They are looking for firemen, the police are looking for, they have been looking for a long time and cannot find …” These lines from a nursery rhyme could have ended. But why is it so pessimistic? Found in the 30s of the last century at the bottom of Lake Nemi in Italy, two yachts of the extravagant Roman tyrant Caligula. The decks of these huge yachts were covered with marble mosaics, carved columns supported the hinged roofs, and the sides were sheathed with sheets of gold. Both ships were placed in a specially built museum. Alas, in 1944 the museum was destroyed in a fire, and the gold was gone. Yet these priceless floating palaces were raised from the depths of the lake.
Author: Andrey Bystrov