Lost treasures should not be associated only with pirates and fictional stories. In reality, there are also hidden treasures that no one has managed to find. Check out this list to inspire your own treasure journey!
Menorah, created two thousand years ago
Almost two thousand years ago, in 70 AD, the Romans laid siege to the temple in Jerusalem and stole a valuable menorah from there. It is known that later she ended up in Rome. She is even depicted on the frieze of the Arch of Titus, located in the Roman Forum. Some believe that the menorah was kept in the Temple of Peace, which burned down in 191. One way or another, the further fate of the valuable item is unknown. The likelihood that it will be found is extremely small.
Imperial seal from China
The Imperial Seal, also known as the Hereditary Seal of the Kingdoms, was made from jade in 221 BC for an emperor who had just ascended the throne. The item was passed from dynasty to dynasty until the tenth century AD, after which all records of its existence disappear. There are several theories about the fate of the seal, several have recently been found, each of which was tried to be declared genuine. None of these claims have yet been confirmed. Historians still have a lot of work to do.
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Crown gems from Great Britain
King John, who ruled in 1216, was despised by all subjects. He signed the Magna Carta, which did not bring him popularity, and was forced to flee, taking with him some precious stones. On the way, he fell ill with dysentery, his entourage in a hurry began to search for a medic, and as a result, his luggage was lost. It is speculated that the bag may have drowned in the muddy waters of Wash Bay. Some believe that the king did not have any jewelry with him and therefore there is no point in looking for them at all.
Dagobert's Scepter
Dagobert's scepter was one of the jewels of the French royal family. It was created in the seventh century for the coronation of King Dagobert. It was made of pure gold. The scepter was kept in the Basilica of Saint-Denis until 1795, when it disappeared and was never found. It is believed to have been stolen, but the location of the item is a real mystery to this day.
Florentine diamond
The large Medici yellow diamond was mined in India and was valued at over one hundred and thirty-seven carats. At the end of the seventeenth century, when the last of the Medici dynasty died, the Florentine diamond passed to the imperial family of Austria. After the fall of the Austrian Empire, during the First World War, the family of the emperor took him into exile in Switzerland. Since then, his trace has been lost. Some believe that the diamond was stolen by those close to the family, and someone is sure that it was divided into small parts, so it will be impossible to find the jewel.
San Miguel's treasure
San Miguel was a Spanish ship that carried large quantities of precious metals and stones for the Spanish king. In 1715, he sank in a storm near Cuba and was never found. Some believe that the ship was the richest treasure ever lost at sea in history.
Thomas Bale cryptograms
In 1816, Thomas Bale and several of his associates discovered a large deposit of gold and silver while excavating in the Rocky Mountains. They wanted to keep the wealth for their family, so they hid it. Bale wrote an encrypted letter describing where to find gold. Then he put the letter in a box and gave it to the keeper of the hotel in Virginia for safekeeping. He never returned for the box. The innkeeper opened the box many years later, but could not decipher the cryptograms, so the treasure remained lost.
Lost Mine of Gold
In the 1840s, a gold deposit was discovered in the Superstition Mountains of Central Arizona. The mine was profitable enough until the Apache Indians attacked it and killed all the workers. The location of the mine was lost until it was found by an immigrant from Germany named Jakob Waltz. Before he died, he described the coordinates to his caring neighbor, Julia Thomas, but she could not find them on the map.
Confederate Gold
When hostilities ended in the United States in 1865, gold, valued at millions of dollars, was lost without a trace. Since then, historians and treasure seekers have been constantly arguing on this score. Some believe that the Confederates hid some of their treasures while they awaited the restoration of the South's independence. Not so long ago, there was also a theory that part of the treasure, estimated at almost one hundred and fifty million dollars, is located at the bottom of Lake Michigan.
Faberge eggs
Since 1885, the Russian imperial family has regularly ordered eggs encrusted with precious stones and metals from the Faberge jewelry house. Each one was unique, with small pieces of art inside - for example, a golden crown inside a golden chicken. A total of fifty eggs were made, all of which were confiscated by the new government after the revolution in 1917. Most have been saved, but seven eggs have been lost. However, there is still hope that all of them will be found: in 2012, one of the eggs was found at an American metal dealer.
Leon Trabuco gold
In the early thirties, Mexican millionaire Leon Trabuco traveled from New Mexico to the desert several times. It is believed that he and several of his business associates hid gold in the desert. They hoped that soon prices would rise and gold could be sold. Then the United States passed a law making private ownership of gold illegal. Trabuco was out of luck. Within a few months, both he and his associates were found dead under mysterious circumstances. The location of the gold was never found.
Dutch Schultz's Treasure
In 1935, Dutch Schultz, a Prohibition gangster, was mortally wounded in a shootout. Before dying, he informed his bodyguard of a treasure hidden in the Catskills. Unfortunately, the bodyguard died before he could tell about the exact location of the wealth, so no one was able to figure out where it was.
Royal box
The Polish aristocrat Izabela Czartorisska created this box in 1800. The wooden box contained seventy-three precious things that formerly belonged to the Polish monarchy. These were watches, chains, silver rosaries, ivory boxes, silver cutlery. The box was lost during the Second World War. Not a single item from it has ever been found.
Forrest Fenn's Treasure
In 1988, treasure hunter Forrest Fenn fell ill with cancer and decided to collect his treasures in a small chest before dying and leave it in the Rocky Mountains. Then he managed to defeat the disease, after which he published a poem with the clues needed to find the treasure. Now in his eighties, Fenn reports that about sixty-five thousand people went to the Rocky Mountains in search of, but no one was lucky. Frightening fact: some of the seekers died during the trip.
Treasures of Vero Beach
Over the centuries, there have been several shipwrecks at Vero Beach. This has led treasure seekers from all over the world to regularly travel there to try their luck. Despite the fact that a large amount of gold and artifacts have been found, many are convinced that the most valuable is still hidden in the waves.
Marina Ilyushenko