Perhaps they never even existed. Yet the hunt for these five legendary treasures will never end — at least not until they are found.
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High Five: Lost treasures with a tale to tell
Legends of lost treasures abound. While the existence of these mythical hidden riches are open to question, many people are still on the hunt for this lost booty today — sometimes centuries after it disappeared.
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Tsar gold in Lake Baikal: a sunken treasure from the Russian Revolution
While the murder of the Russian Imperial Romanov family in 1918 is the stuff of infamy and legend, so too are the stories about their lost riches. A large part of the family's gold reserves were to be transported to safety over a frozen Lake Baikal in railway wagons. The story goes that the ice broke beneath the weight of the load. A century later the sunken treasure is still waiting to be found.
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A room lined with amber and gold
When Prussian king Friedrich-Wilhelm gave his first gift to the Russian Tsar, Peter, in 1716, the so-called Amber Room, with its walls of amber and gold leaf, was quickly proclaimed the Eighth Wonder of the World. During World War II, Nazi soldiers looted the panels from the room in the Katharinen Palace packed it as booty in boxes. They were never found again — despite an ongoing treasure hunt.
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The Holy Grail — a mysterious vessel
Perhaps the most famous myth of the Occident and the central object of Christianity, the Holy Grail has been missing for millennia. Jesus is said to have drunk from this cup during the Lord's Supper. According to medieval sources, the vessel has the power to impart eternal youth. Countless heroes have already tried to find it, including the knights around King Arthur's table.
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Treasure of the Knights Templar
Rich in legend, with no limits to the fantasies about its greater meaning, this treasure is the fortune of the Knights Templar. They became rich not only through the Crusades, but also thanks to flourishing banking businesses. Probably out of greed, the King of France had the Order crushed in 1312. But the Knights' treasure has never been found.
Treasure of the Nibelungen: Somewhere in the Rhine
Around 1200, a heroic epic that was handed down orally finally landed on paper. Short version: the young warrior Siegfried acquired the fortune of a king and defeated a dragon before being murdered by his rival, Hagen — who lets his treasure sink into the Rhine. If this story of loyalty, betrayal and power really happened, why has the sunken treasure not yet been recovered from the river's depths?
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It's an age-old dream: Getting rich in one fell swoop without having to work for it — despite your humble origins.
Such rags to riches fantasies are as old as time and often involve the accidental discovery of hidden treasures. Some come true: like when a German student found a 17th century painting hidden in an old sofa bought at a flea market that sold for near €20,000 ($22,700).
Across Europe, long-rumored lost treasures are still waiting to be discovered. Their whereabouts are as mysterious as they are legendary.
One persistent hidden treasure myth is the Russian Tsar's family fortune, some of which was lost during the 1917 revolution. Allegedly, a large part of the Nicholas II’s gold reserves were to be taken out of the country but the booty never crossed the border.
The location of the gold went with Tsar Nicholas to his grave after he and his family were murdered by the Bolsheviks. It's said that the gold bars are lying at the bottom of Lake Baikal.
The medieval Nibelung treasure myth is even more nebulous.
Here 144 wagons of gold from King Nibelung were sunk in the Rhine River in western Germany after the death of dragon slayer Siegfried. But historians cannot lend credence to this myth, which nonetheless persists — as does the hunt for the gold's location.
Discover five lost treasure legends in the latest High Five picture gallery above.