Top Ten Lost Treasures- (Part-2)

Yamashita gold

When fortune hunters fished out the bell-shaped mass from the South China Sea in May 1993, everyone thought that they had uncovered the legendary Yamashita treasure.

President Fidel Ramos set up a task force to examine the metal. Philippines' National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) described it as a two-tonne block of platinum estimated to be worth US$480 million, while NBI chief Epimaco Velasco believed that it was part of the Yamashita treasure.

According to popular legend, Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita looted the national treasures of South-east Asian countries which Japan conquered during the early stages of World War II.

He supposedly brought his war booty to Philippines. He was said to have buried his treasure in more than 100 different sites around the country as his army escaped from the advancing Allied troops in 1945.
Yamashita's trove of jewellery, gold and other precious metals was believed to be worth US$100-US$200 billion. When the general was hanged in 1946 as a war criminal, the exact whereabouts of his treasure remained a mystery that attracted countless fortune seekers.

Some treasure hunters were even willing to risk their lives to find the famous treasure. Two Filipinos were buried alive in the southern Philippine city of General Santos when an 8-m-deep tunnel they were digging caved in.

American treasure hunters claimed that Yamashita made use of war prisoners to bury part of the booty in booby-trapped underground chambers near Manila. The chambers were then sealed, trapping the prisoners inside.

But Manila's National Museum archaeologist Eusebio Dizon said that he never found any evidence of the treasure in the 18 years he spent looking for artefacts on land and sea.

According to former first lady Imelda Marcos, the Yamashita treasure fell into the hands of her late husband. She said that Mr Marcos obtained his wealth from the treasure which he had used to trade in precious metals. However, she refused to divulge how her husband discovered the treasure or how much it was worth.

On the other hand, those who were skeptical of Mrs Marcos' claims said that the gold story was nothing more than a cover-up for Mr Marcos' plunder of the Philippine Treasury during his presidency.
So the legend of Yamashita's gold continues. Who knows, the gold may still be buried out there, somewhere, waiting to be unearthed.

The czar fabergo eggs

Czar Alexander III and his wife Czarina Maria Fedorovna celebrated their twentieth anniversary on Easter in 1885. Easter is the most celebrated holiday for those of the Russian Orthodox faith, marking a time of hope and renewed life. So it was that on this very special occasion the Czar wanted a very special gift to present to his wife.

The Czar commissioned a young jeweler, Peter Carl Faberge, whose creations were favored by his wife, to make a truly special gift. On Easter morning, Faberge delivered an enameled egg with a golden yolk. Inside the yolk was a golden hen, and inside the hen, a miniature royal crown of diamonds and a ruby egg. Maria was completely taken with the gift, which led the Czar to engage Faberge's services every Easter thereafter.

The Czar only insisted that each Faberge egg be unique, and contain a surprise befitting of an Empress.
Faberge came through, year after year, taking inspiration from the lives of the Czar and his wife. For example, the Danish Palaces egg of 1891 was covered in translucent pink enamel, encrusted with jewels and gold leaf. Inside was a series of 10 screens upon which were painted tiny portraits of palaces and houses in which Maria had lived as a Danish princess before marrying Alexander III.

After the Czar's unexpected death in 1894, the Czar's son, Nicholas II, ascended to the throne. Nicholas not only continued the tradition of the Faberge egg for his mother, but placed an order for a second egg for his wife, Czarina Alexandra Fedorovna.
Faberge's life changed when the Imperial eggs were shown in public for the first time at the 1900 World Exhibition. The exquisite beauty of the ornate eggs captured the adoration of royalty and aristocracy, and Faberge was inundated with commissions from around the world. This led to the establishment of the House of Faberge.
The Czar's reign ended on 15 March 1917 among famine and riots. Nicholas and his family, including his five children, were held hostage for over a year before they were finally shown to a basement and executed on 17 July 1918. Nicholas' mother managed to escape death and departed from her homeland with the Order of St. George egg -- the last Faberge egg she would ever receive.

Fifty-six Imperial Faberge eggs were made in all, and of those forty-four are accounted for and two others have been photographed. Faberge Easter eggs were also commissioned by Siberian gold mine owner, Alexander Kelch, but the Imperial Easter egg collection is the most highly valued.

The mystique, beauty, and whimsical nature of the Faberge egg is copied to this day, though few are aware of the history behind the bejeweled symbol of hope and life inspired by a reign of Czars whose own lives ended in tragedy.

City of Paititi

From what one knows thanks to the chronicles and to the old legendary traditions, Païtiti would have been an immense city that would be buried somewhere in the Peruvian Amazon Rain Forest. It is a city for which one looked in all the South America. But since about fifty years, the research focused toward the southeast of Peru, in Peruvian Amazonia. What appears logical, because Païtiti is bound at the empire inca. And the modern Peru constitutes what was the center of this empire: the Tawantinsuyu.

The point of departure of the legend is situated after the death of Atawualpa, the Inca reigning upon the arrival of the Spaniards (1532). The Empire was then for its peak, but torn by a civil war between Huascar, the heir legitimizes of the throne of the Incas, and his half brother Atawualpa. It is then that appears Francisco Pizarro. This one taking advantage of the state of civil war in which was the Empire, captures Atawualpa. Prisoner of the Spaniards, the Inca proposes, in exchange for his freedom, the payment of a fabulous treasure. He makes a commitment to fill of gold the room of the palace where he is held, until the height of the raised hand, and to fill of silver two other similar rooms, and in one month. Pizarro, which was dazzled by the wealth of Peru, accepts obviously the market. The ransom of the emperor begins then to stream in the Spanish camp of all the provinces of Tawantinsuyu. The commentators of this time speak about real golden mountains ! We say that at the same time a part of the Inca nobility, taking a system of secret cities, would have found refuge in the forest, on the Amazonian hillside of Peru. And it is on this matter that we pronounce, from the first years of the conquest, a mysterious word : that of Paititi.

Was it about the hidden face of the Inca Empire, from the secret fief of the Incas ? Nobody knows it. Because nobody has still ever found this mysterious lost city. It is there also that would have been hidden as a matter of urgency all the treasures of the Empire. At least those of the region of Cusco, the imperial capital. Tons of gold and magnificent precious objects would have passed in transit so hurriedly towards the jungle. Certain commentators speak about twenty thousand llamas loaded with gold, driven eastward, for an unknown destination, by the Coya, the wife of the Inca.

Several chronicles speak in particular about a wonderful "gold chain" which the Inca Huayna Capac had made execute to commemorate the birth of Huascar, the heir legitimizes of the Incas, which Atawualpa, his half brother, will make murder. This yahuirka, the length of which was at least two hundred meters, had, as it is said, links so big as the inch of a man. Garcilaso of Vega, a half-blood who spent his youth to Cusco, claims that his weight was such as two hundred Indians succeeded hardly in lifting it. It was covered with articulated golden plaques which, feigning the scales of the skin of a snake, sparkled in the Sun. The conquistadors tried vainly to seize it. But the legend tells that this inestimable golden chain would have secretly been returned, by the very Indians, up to the kingdom of Grán Païtiti and thrown in a lagoon, accompanied with quantities of objects of a priceless value.

We also speak of a fabulous golden solar disk, the Punchao, which throned formerly in the main room of the Qorikancha, the Golden Wall, the Big Temple of Cusco. Height about four meters, this anthropomorphic idol representing Inti, the god Sun, based on a base which contained, as it is said, hearts pulverized of the Inca emperors. It was the Holy of Holies, the most precious object of the Empire. We lose its track after 1572.

The legend of Paititi, we see it, is thus very close in this history of ransom and gold. And it is moreover all the drama of Paititi. Because most of those who had respite, through the history, to look for this lost city, were livened up, for the greater part, only by the bait of the gold. But Paititi is above all... an archaeological treasure ! It is the Graal of the modern Peru. And it is a big world heritage.

The pharaohs missing treasure

The discovery of King Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1922 revealed the fact that he had been buried with many worldly jewels and riches. However, this was not the first the people had heard about royalty being buried with much of the wealth that they had acquired during their life. It was well-known that the Pharaohs of Egypt were usually buried with many of their gems and precious stones and it’s always been better-known that these tombs were often raided by many thieves and criminals. This proved to be true in the 19th century when many of these tombs were unearthed and were found to be completely empty. However, not all of the thefts in the Valley of the Kings, which is where the Pharaohs are buried, could have been done by a common thief as the skill required to get into the different graves and completely empty them was very great and thought to be more than a common thief could handle.

One theory suggests that priests who oversaw burials took all of the wealth from these graves. In those times, the taking of the ancestor’s riches by the priests was not condemned as it was considered that this money was to be used for the church and was therefore, fine for the priests to collect and was a known and accepted activity. However, after it was discovered that the tombs of the Valley of the Kings were empty, the ruler Herihor became an obvious suspect. When Herihor gave up the throne, he joined forces with his son-in-law, Piankh and the two quickly took control of many of the people of the now divided kingdom. Herihor became the one who oversaw the reburials and this would have given him many opportunities to take from the different graves. What makes the story even more interesting and mysterious, is the fact that Herihor has never had his tomb discovered and so, should it ever be found, so might all of the wealth of the Pharaohs past.

Treasure of lima

As the story goes, in 1820, foreseeing that Peru would revolt across Spain, the Governor and clergy in Lima wished for their treasures to be transported to Mexico. For this feat, they hired a British brig, Mary Dear and Captain Thompson to protect the treasures of Lima to Mexico. The “Loot of Lima” was estimated at over $60,000, which came from the cathedral. Among the treasure were two life-sized statues of the Blessed Virgin holding the Divine Child. Both of these statues were made from pure gold. Other treasures included jeweled stones and candlesticks.

The thought of just how much this treasure could mean to one person, Captain Thompson had all the passengers aboard Mary Dear killed. He then headed to Cocos Island. Cocos Island is around 400 miles from the coast of Costa Rica where he buried the treasure in a cave.

He left the treasure and soon became partners with the notorious pirate, Benito Bonito. While sailing with Benito Bonito, the ship was attacked by a British warship. The only one to survive the attack was Captain Thompson.

Finally, years later, Thompson ran into a stranger of the name of Keating. He explained his dilemma to Keating who agreed to travel to the island to retrieve the buried treasure. Thompson died before even departing.

Keating decided to go ahead with the expedition and with Captain Bogue set sail for Cocos Island. They did discover the treasure that Thompson buried, however, greed got in the way once again and the crew mutinied. Thompson and Bogue loaded as much as could of the treasure on a smaller boat, the treasure was too heavy for the boat and it capsized. Bogue drowned and Thompson was found by a ship passing by and was taken to Newfoundland. This is where he died.

Captain Thompson left clues to the whereabouts of the “Loot of Lima” in a waybill. He talks of arriving at a bay on the northeast of Cocos Island. His directions state to follow the shoreline until you reach a creek, follow the creek that flows inland at the high water mark. Now go 70 paces, west by south. Now you will notice an opening in the hills. Go north and walk into the stream. You will then see a smooth rock rising up such as a cliff, about where your shoulders meet the cliff you will notice a hole, just large enough for a finger or thumb to fit into, here you must put in an iron bar and turn. Behind this is a door that opens up to the “Loot of Lima.”

Another version of Captain Thompson’s deathbed story states that at the Baby of Hope, which is between two deserted islands, you should walk 350 paces going with the creek and then change course to go north-northeast for about 850 yards. Here you will find a cave marked with a cross and this is the location of the Treasure of Lima.