1) The Nazi Gold Train
There are few treasure hunters who haven’t heard of this one, a secret Nazi cargo train loaded with tons of pure gold, and apparently a huge amount of jewels and art work.
During world war 2 the Germans stole an enormous amount of gold from all across Europe and stashed it in safe houses. They typically stashed their wealth locally, and the Polish city of Wałbrzych was known to have held one of these storage facilities of quite some size.
All the gold from the region was taken here for safe keeping, but when the tables started to turn and the Germans realised they were losing they attempted to hide their stolen goods, and one of the hiding places has become known as the Nazi Gold Train.
The story goes that all of the gold in the Wałbrzych safe-house was loaded on a small cargo train and sent west through the Owl mountains. At some point in the mountains the train turned into a small tunnel cut out so trains could pull in and allow others to pass on the single track line.
The train drove into one such tunnel and SS personnel set traps on the train before blowing the entrance and smoothing it over to look like the surrounding mountain side. The tracks were then removed and all signs that there was ever a tunnel there were covered up.
To this day no one has found the gold train, even though there have been a huge amount of searches by both independent treasure hunters and Polish authorities.
The Nazi Gold Train – The Full Story
2) The Golden Owl
This is one of the few treasure stories that actually tells you where the treasure is, the only problem is that you have to be insanely smart to solve the clues that lead to it.
On the 15th of May 1993, a communications expert called Régis Hauser spent 450 hours designing clues that when solved, would lead to a specific location were the lucky treasure hunter would find a statue of an owl, along with some instructions.
The idea was that someone would solve the clues and take the statue to Hausers lawyer, were the statue found in the hunt could then be exchanged for the “Golden Owl”. This statue is made of gold and has numerous diamonds studded around the head, and is worth close to half a million Euros, though that price tag would increase massively at auction due to the owls status.
Hauser thought the clues would be solved in a matter of months, and after no one came close he released a series of extra clues to help people out, but again no one came close to solving it. Hauser died in 2009 but his lawyer has held onto the statue and the promise of the handover ever since, with the prize still waiting to be claimed. The only problem is that it seems Hauser was much smarter than he gave himself credit for, as the puzzles are ridiculously hard.
The Golden Owl – The Full Story
3) The Treasure of Lima
Sometimes referred to as the treasure of coco island, this stash of wealth is said to include two life sized solid gold statues of the virgin Mary, which would be worth several million a piece.
During the 1800’s pretty much every country around Europe engaged in colonialism, and Spain’s territory was most of south and central America. During the occupation gold and precious gems were collected from around the country and taken to safe places for storage, normally in a fort or city stronghold.
The City of Lima in Peru is believed to have held the biggest stash of wealth in the region, and after the locals kicked off and began to rebel, Spain’s first priority was to save all the gold they had stolen.
To do this they loaded it onto a private ship who they paid to take it to another stronghold in Mexico, and sent some soldiers and priests along to ensure it arrived. The crew of this ship were too tempted by the enormous amount of gold they were carrying and ambushed the Spanish soldiers and priests, killing them all and dumping their bodies overboard.
They then took the ship to Coco island, a tiny piece of land over 300 miles south east of Costa Rica. Here they buried the treasure to come back at a later date when the Spanish had moved out the region, but due to a series of unfortunate events for the crew they never managed to recover their gold, which is said to be there to this day.
The Treasure of Lima – The Full Story
4)The Oak Island money pit
A contender for the most well known treasure of all time, mostly due to the huge amount of publicity its received in recent years in the form of a TV series and countless media articles.
Oak island in Nova Scotia is the home of a pit said to contain a great treasure, believed to have been put there by pirates in the 1800’s. Most of the time stories of buried pirate treasure turn out to be nothing more than a campfire story that’s spread a bit to much, but the interesting thing about this one is there’s some very strange stuff that has been found in the pit.
The treasure is of course at the very bottom, but the thing is no one can get to it due to how to pit has been dug. It includes sections of wooden beams and is also said to have numerous channels connected to the sea which would flood the pit in the event someone tried to get to the bottom.
One of the most interesting finds from down the pit are some old coconut fibres that were woven into a mat, dating from around 200 years ago. This bolsters the credibility of the pirate story since they were known to frequent tropical areas where coconuts grow, and with the age of the material its only led to extra hype for the tale.
The Oak Island Money Pit – The Full Story
5) The Lost Gold of Paititi
This is the story that most people mistake for the treasure of El Dorado, which actually refers to a tale associated with Lake Guatavita in Columbia. The tale of a long lost golden city refers to the treasure of Paititi, believed to be located in either southern Peru or western Bolivia.
During the 16th century when the Spanish first came to south America, it wasn’t long before they pissed off the locals enough to start a war. Unfortunately for the native inhabitants their technology was well behind the Spanish, and combined with the introduction of diseases brought over from Europe the Inca population was decimated.
The Incas fought bravely against the Spanish for as long as they could, but eventually their once great empire had collapsed into a single cities worth of people on the run for their lives. The Spanish were approaching the last known stronghold of the Incas located in the middle of a valley, but upon reaching its walls were they expected fierce resistance, there was not a single Inca anywhere to be seen.
It turns out that the last of the Incas had left the valley and went to hide in a secret city within the jungle called Paititi, along with all their possessions and a huge amount of gold. The thing is that the city of Paititi was never found by the Spanish and to this day no one has discovered its location, or the gold.
The Lost Gold of Paititi – The Full Story
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