Lost Treasures
148 lost-treasure cases worldwide — sort and filter by region or status. Where a case has a defensible search area it is on the map; where it does not, that is stated plainly. A point is the center of a search area or landmark, never the treasure itself.
All · 148North America · 57South America · 25Europe · 12Middle East & N. Africa · 24Africa · 9Asia · 10Oceania & Pacific · 8Deep-ocean wrecks · 3
"General Grant" Gold
Auckland Islands, subantarctic New Zealand
Gold-rush bullion
LOST
1715 Treasure Fleet
Florida "Treasure Coast" (Vero Beach/Sebastian), Atlantic
$400M+; much still in the sand
PARTIALLY RECOVERED
Aagtekerke (Lost VOC Treasure Ship)
vanished in the Indian Ocean between the Cape of Good Hope and Batavia; search focuses on the Southern Houtman Abrolhos, WA, near the Zeewijk site
~30,000 silver coins (~3 tonnes) + 214 ivory tusks
LOST
Antikythera Wreck
off Antikythera island, Aegean Sea, Greece
Priceless artifacts
PARTIALLY RECOVERED
Atahualpa's Lost Convoy (Cajamarca)
Cajamarca region, Peru
Part of the ransom gold
LEGEND
Atahualpa's Ransom & the Llanganates Treasure
Llanganates Mtns, Ecuador
Immense Inca gold
LEGEND
Batavia Treasure
Houtman Abrolhos (Beacon Island), off Western Australia
Silver coins + unrecovered cargo
PARTIALLY RECOVERED
Beale Ciphers Treasure
Bedford County, Virginia, USA (near Montvale, in the vicinity of present-day Bedford / the Blue Ridge foothills)
Per the decoded second cipher, thousands of pounds of gold and silver plus jewels; modern popular estimates run into the tens of millions of dollars — existence is unproven and widely doubted
DISPUTED
Blackbeard's Caches
Ocracoke, NC (and Beaufort Inlet)
Pirate loot
LEGEND / partial
Blue Bucket Mine
Blue Mtns / Malheur region, OR
Gold nuggets
LEGEND
Brother XII's Buried Gold
De Courcy Island, BC
Jars of gold coins
DISPUTED
Caballo Mountains Caches
south-central NM
Spanish gold/silver
LEGEND
Captain Kidd's Buried Treasure
Gardiners Island, Long Island, NY (and beyond)
Pirate gold
PARTIALLY DOCUMENTED
Carnot Bay Diamonds (Diamond Dakota Mystery)
Carnot Bay, Kimberley Region, Western Australia (~100 km north of Broome)
Uncut diamonds valued at £300,000 in 1942 (tens of millions today)
LOST
Carre-Shinob (Ute Sacred Mine)
Uinta Mtns, UT
Unknown
LEGEND
Confederate Treasury ("Lost Confederate Gold")
route VA → GA, ending near Washington, GA
Gold/silver coin & bullion
DISPUTED
Crown Jewels of King John ("the Wash")
Wash estuary, England
Royal regalia
LOST
Danville's Lost Gold Ledge
near Danville, WA
Gold ledge
LEGEND
Davis Lock Buried Gold
Davis Lock, Rideau Canal, Ontario
Small / unknown
LEGEND
Death Valley Scotty's Secret Mine
near Scotty's Castle, Death Valley, CA
Claimed gold
DISPUTED
Dutch Schultz's Buried Fortune
Catskills, NY (Phoenicia area)
~$5–7M cash/bonds
LEGEND
Egyptian Museum Looting (Tahrir Square, 2011)
Egyptian Museum (Tahrir Square), Cairo, Egypt
No official aggregate
PARTIALLY RECOVERED
El Dorado & Lake Guatavita
near Bogotá, Colombia
Votive gold & emeralds
PARTIALLY RECOVERED
Flor de la Mar
off Sumatra, Strait of Malacca
Often cited $2B+
LOST
Gilt Dragon Shipwreck (Vergulde Draeck)
offshore reef just south of Ledge Point, Western Australia (~75–100 km north of Perth)
8 chests of silver (78,600 guilders) + trade goods (106,400 guilders)
PARTIALLY RECOVERED
Iraq Museum Looting (Lioness Attacking a Nubian & Cylinder Seals)
Iraq National Museum, Baghdad, Iraq
Cultural / no aggregate appraisal
PARTIALLY RECOVERED
Iron Door Mine
Socorro Peak / Harquahala Mtns, AZ
Unknown
LEGEND
Janni's Chimney
near Northport, WA
Rich ore
LEGEND
Jean Lafitte's Buried Treasure
LA & TX Gulf Coast (Galveston area)
Pirate plunder
LEGEND
John Swift's Lost Silver Mine
eastern KY (Appalachia)
Silver, minted coins
LEGEND
José Gaspar (Gasparilla) Treasure
Gasparilla Island, SW FL
Pirate hoard
LEGEND
King Solomon's Mines / Ophir
Great Zimbabwe region (disputed)
Ancient gold source
LEGEND
Kruger Millions
eastern Transvaal (Mpumalanga), South Africa
Tens of millions in gold
LEGEND
La Ciudad de los Césares (City of the Caesars)
Patagonia, Argentina/Chile
City of gold and silver
LEGEND
La Noche Triste / Moctezuma's Treasure
Mexico City
Aztec gold
PARTIALLY RECOVERED
Lost Adams Diggings
western NM / eastern AZ
Placer gold
LEGEND
Lost Breyfogle Mine
Death Valley region, CA/NV
Rich gold ore
LEGEND
Lost Cabin Mine
WY/MT borderlands
Gold
LEGEND
Lost Cement Mine
near Mammoth Lakes, CA (Sierra)
Gold in reddish "cement" rock
LEGEND
Lost Dutch Oven Mine
Colorado Desert, CA
Gold nuggets
LEGEND
Lost Dutchman's Mine
Superstition Mountains, near Apache Junction, east of Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Unknown / unproven — a supposedly rich gold mine; no documented gold ever recovered from the alleged mine
LEGEND
Lost Gold Mine of the Big Bend
Big Bend, TX
Gold ledge
LEGEND
Lost Gunsight Mine
Death Valley, CA
Nearly pure silver
LEGEND
Lost Josephine Mine
Bitterroot Mtns, ID/MT
Gold
LEGEND
Lost Klondike Gold (Chilkoot Pass)
Chilkoot Pass, British Columbia / Alaska boundary
Unknown
LEGEND
Lost Lemon Mine
Crowsnest Pass region, AB
Rich gold
LEGEND
Lost McLeod Mine
Nahanni Valley ("Headless Valley"), NWT
Gold
LEGEND
Lost Mine on Bear Creek ("Three Skeletons")
La Plata County, CO
Gold
LEGEND
Lost Padre Mine
Franklin Mtns near El Paso, TX
Spanish silver/gold
LEGEND
Lost Pegleg Mine
Anza-Borrego Desert, CA
Black-coated gold nuggets
LEGEND
Lost Rhoades Mine
Uinta Mtns, UT
Vast Spanish-worked gold
LEGEND
Lost Sheepherders Mine
Jarbidge Wilderness, NV
Rich gold
LEGEND
Main Duck Island Shipwreck Gold
Main Duck Island, eastern Lake Ontario, Ontario
Unknown
LEGEND
Merchant Royal ("El Dorado of the Seas")
off Land's End, Cornwall, England
~$1B+
LOST
Nadir Shah's Loot (Peacock Throne, Koh-i-Noor)
dispersed after the 1739 sack of Delhi
Astronomical
PARTIALLY LOST
Naranjal Mine
Durango, Mexico
Silver
LEGEND
Nazi Gold — Lake Toplitz / "Gold Train"
Toplitz, Austria; Walbrzych, Poland
Forged notes, possible bullion
LARGELY LOST / LEGEND
Nuestra Señora de Atocha
off the Marquesas Keys, west of Key West, FL (Gulf side)
$400M+ recovered
PARTIALLY RECOVERED
Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes
Atlantic off the Algarve, Portugal
~$500M coins
RECOVERED
Oak Island "Money Pit"
Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia
Unknown (pirate / Templar / Marie Antoinette theories)
DISPUTED
Old Spec Silver Mine
Old Speck Mtn, ME
Silver vein
LEGEND
Padmanabhaswamy Temple Vaults
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
~$20B+
MOSTLY RECOVERED
Palmyra Museum & Tomb Looting
Palmyra Museum and Valley of the Tombs, Tadmur, Syria
No aggregate value (individual statues priced from ~$150,000 on the black market)
LOST / ongoing
Pitt Lake's Lost Gold ("Slumach's Gold")
Pitt Lake, BC
Gold
LEGEND
Portrait of a Young Man — Raphael
last seen at Hans Frank's villa, Neuhaus am Schliersee, Bavaria, Germany (stolen from the Czartoryski Museum, Kraków, Poland)
~$120M (some estimates above $200M)
LOST
Potosí Silver Shipments
Andean Peru/Bolivia
Unknown
DOCUMENTED losses
Priam's Treasure (the Gold of Troy)
Hisarlik (Troy), Turkey
Gold diadems, jewelry, vessels
LOOTED / RELOCATED
RMS Republic
Atlantic off Nantucket
Disputed (rumored gold for Russia)
DISPUTED
Royal Treasure of the Ryukyu Kingdom
cave near Shuri Castle, Naha, Okinawa, Japan
Culturally priceless (nominal ~$85M)
PARTIALLY RECOVERED
Russian-era "Alaska Crown Jewels"
Sitka, AK
Unknown
LEGEND
SS Central America ("Ship of Gold")
Atlantic off South Carolina (~2,200 m)
Hundreds of millions in Gold Rush bullion
PARTIALLY RECOVERED
SS Gairsoppa
North Atlantic off Ireland (~4,700 m)
~$200M+ silver
RECOVERED
SS Waratah ("Australia's Titanic")
off the Mbashe (Bashee) River mouth, Transkei Wild Coast, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Unknown (cargo was lead, not bullion)
LOST
Saddle Ridge Hoard
Sierra Nevada Gold Country, rural Northern California, USA (exact property site kept undisclosed for the owners' privacy)
Face value $27,980; numismatic value appraised at approximately $10 million
RECOVERED
San José Galleon ("Holy Grail of Shipwrecks")
off Barú/Cartagena, Colombia (~600 m deep)
~$17–20B
DISPUTED
San Saba / Los Almagres / Lost Bowie Mine
San Saba River, central TX
Rich silver
LEGEND
Scottie Creek Stagecoach Loot
along Scottie Creek, northeast of Cache Creek, British Columbia
~$15,000 in 1890 gold
LEGEND
Shawnee Silver of the Ohio Valley
OH / KY / WV
Native silver source
LEGEND
Shishak's Plunder of Solomon's Temple
taken to Egypt, c. 925 BC
Solomonic gold, the golden shields
LOST
Staffordshire Hoard
Hammerwich, near Lichfield, England
~£3.3M
RECOVERED
Tayopa / Planchas de Plata
Sonora, Mexico (Arizona borderlands)
Vast silver
LEGEND
Tayopa Silver Mine
Sonora, Mexico
Vast silver
LEGEND
Templar Treasure
France (Paris) / Scotland (Rosslyn), disputed
Unknown
LEGEND
The Abbasid Gold of Baghdad (the Tigris Hoard)
Baghdad, Iraq
Centuries of caliphal wealth
LOST
The Amber Room
last seen Königsberg (Kaliningrad), Russia
~$150–500M
LOST
The Ark of the Covenant
claimed by tradition at Aksum, Ethiopia
Priceless
LOST / UNVERIFIABLE
The Assyrian Gold of Nimrud
Nimrud, Iraq
~100+ kg of gold
PARTIALLY RECOVERED / ENDANGERED
The Bar Kokhba Cave Caches (Cave of Letters)
Nahal Hever, Judaean Desert, Israel
Refugee valuables
PARTIALLY RECOVERED
The Benin Bronzes (looted 1897)
originally the Royal Palace, Benin City, Nigeria; now dispersed across 139 institutions in 21 countries
Cultural / not market-valued
LOCATED BUT CONTESTED
The Bom Jesus Shipwreck
Sperrgebiet diamond concession near Oranjemund, Atlantic coast, Namibia
~$13M (gold coins only)
RECOVERED
The Calchaquí Gold
Calchaquí Valleys, NW Argentina (Salta/Tucumán)
Indigenous & rebel gold
LEGEND
The Chimú Gold of Chan Chan
Trujillo, Peru
Vast empire goldwork
LARGELY LOOTED
The Choquequirao Caches
Apurímac, Peru
Inca refuge goods
LEGEND / archaeological
The Copper Scroll Caches
Qumran / Judaean Desert, Israel–West Bank
Possibly tons of gold & silver
LOST
The Coricancha Gold of Cusco
Cusco, Peru
Solid-gold temple fittings
LOST
The Espadarte Shipwreck
off Fort São Sebastião, Ilha de Moçambique, Mozambique
~12.4 kg gold + ~2,000 Ming porcelain pieces
RECOVERED
The Honjō Masamune
last seen at Mejiro police station, Toshima, Tokyo, Japan (surrendered to US occupation forces, January 1946)
~$10M (estimate)
LOST
The Inca Gold of Lake Titicaca
Lake Titicaca, Peru/Bolivia
Sacred Inca gold
LEGEND / partly investigated
The Inca Offerings of Isla del Sol
Lake Titicaca, Bolivia
Sacred gold & silver offerings
PARTIALLY RECOVERED
The Irish Crown Jewels
Bedford Tower, Dublin Castle, Ireland
~$5–20M (estimated)
LOST
The Jesuit Mission Treasure of the Guaraní
Misiones, Argentina/Paraguay/Brazil
Mission gold & silver
LEGEND
The Jesuit Treasure of Sacambaya
Sacambaya valley, Bolivia
Reputed gold & silver of the missions
LEGEND
The Just Judges Panel (Ghent Altarpiece)
Saint Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium
~$80M (estimate; part of a "priceless" work)
LOST
The Koxinga Treasure (Kinmen)
coastal caves, Kinmen (Quemoy) Island, Taiwan
~$250M (legendary)
DISPUTED LEGEND
The Lost Mines of Famatina
Sierra de Famatina, La Rioja, Argentina
Gold & silver veins
LEGEND / historical
The Lost Peking Man Fossils
lost en route Peking → Qinhuangdao port (near former Camp Holcomb), December 1941, China
Scientifically priceless (nominal ~$150M)
LOST
The Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great (the Soma)
Alexandria, Egypt
Gold sarcophagus & relics
LOST
The Mahdist Treasury of Omdurman
Omdurman, Sudan
Looted state wealth
DISPERSED
The Mamluk Treasure of Cairo
Cairo Citadel, Egypt
Sultanate wealth
DISPERSED
The Maqdala Treasures (looted 1868)
originally Maqdala fortress (Amba Mariam), Ethiopia; now in the British Museum, British Library, V&A, and others
Culturally priceless
LOCATED BUT CONTESTED
The Nga Mauk Ruby of Burma
Mandalay Palace, Burma (Myanmar), taken during the British looting of November 1885
~$100M (estimate)
LOST
The Petra Urn ("Pharaoh's Treasury")
Al-Khazneh, Petra, Jordan
Legendary cache
LEGEND
The Pisco / Paracas Coastal Caches
Ica/Paracas coast, Peru
Pirate & colonial silver
LEGEND
The Quimbaya Gold
Quindío/Cauca Valley, Colombia
Exquisite pre-Columbian goldwork
LARGELY LOOTED
The Royal Tombs of Sipán & the Looted Huacas
Lambayeque, Peru
Moche royal gold
RECOVERED
The Royal Treasury of Susa
Susa, Iran
Achaemenid royal wealth
DISPERSED
The Sassanid Treasury of Ctesiphon (the "Spring of Khosrow")
Ctesiphon, Iraq
Vast
DISPERSED
The Sunken Awa Maru
Taiwan Strait off Pingtan / Niushan Island, Fujian, China
Rumored ~$5B (legendary)
RESOLVED
The Tayos Caves Treasure ("Metal Library")
Cueva de los Tayos, Ecuador
Golden artifacts & a metal library
LEGEND / DISPUTED
The Templar Treasure of Acre (1291)
Acre, Israel
Crusader wealth
LOST
The Timbuktu Manuscripts (2012–2013)
Ahmed Baba Institute (IHERI-AB), Timbuktu, Mali; rescued copies held in Bamako
Culturally priceless
MOSTLY RESCUED
The Tomb & Treasure of Cyrus the Great
Pasargadae, Iran
Royal grave goods
LOOTED
The Tomb of Cleopatra & Mark Antony
Taposiris Magna, near Alexandria, Egypt
Royal Ptolemaic riches
UNDISCOVERED
The Treasure of Qarun (Korah)
Lake Qarun / Faiyum, Egypt
Fabled gold
LEGEND
The Treasure of Robinson Crusoe Island
Juan Fernández Islands, Chile
Spanish/pirate gold
LEGEND / DISPUTED
The Treasure of the Queen of Sheba (Marib)
Marib, Yemen
Sabaean royal wealth
LEGEND / partly archaeological
The Treasury of Persepolis (Alexander's Plunder)
Persepolis, Iran
120,000 talents of gold/silver
PARTIALLY LOST
The Zenú (Sinú) Gold
Sinú River region, northern Colombia
Vast funerary goldwork
LARGELY LOOTED
Tomb / Treasure of Genghis Khan
Burkhan Khaldun, Khentii Mtns, Mongolia
Unknown Mongol grave goods
LOST
Treasure of Lima
Cocos Island, off Costa Rica (Pacific)
Hundreds of millions
LEGEND / documented loss
Treasures of the Second Temple (the Menorah & Sacred Vessels)
looted to Rome, 70 AD; final fate unknown
Immense
LOST
Victorio Peak Treasure (Doc Noss)
Victorio Peak, Hembrillo Basin, San Andres Mountains, within White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, USA
Claimed by Noss as up to ~16,000 gold bars plus jewels and coins, estimated around $1.7 billion — figure unverified; no gold has been officially recorded as recovered from the site
DISPUTED
Vilcabamba — the Last Inca Refuge
Espíritu Pampa, Peru
Inca treasure of the refuge state
LEGEND / archaeological
Yamashita's Gold
reputedly Luzon, Philippines (Baguio region)
Claimed billions
DISPUTED
Yocum Silver Dollar Mine
Stone County, MO (Ozarks)
Silver source
LEGEND
Bathurst Bay Pearling Fleet Disaster (Cyclone Mahina)
Bathurst Bay / Princess Charlotte Bay, near Cape Melville, Far North Queensland
Season's pearl-shell harvest (chests of pearls / cash reserves unconfirmed)
DISPUTED / LEGENDARY treasure claimnot mappable
Colonial River Caches
Mississippi/Missouri valley
Unknown
LEGENDnot mappable
Forrest Fenn Treasure
Rocky Mountains, Wyoming, USA (specific hiding site never disclosed; reported to be in Wyoming)
Estimated between roughly $1 million and $5 million; a December 2022 Heritage Auctions sale of items from the chest realized about $1.3 million
RECOVEREDnot mappable
Hoxne Hoard
England
Late-Roman gold and silver
RECOVEREDnot mappable
Jesse James Buried Loot
Missouri and across the Midwest/South
Robbery proceeds
LEGENDnot mappable
Lost Doukhobor Ledge
Gold Creek area, WA
Gold
LEGENDnot mappable
Manuscript 512 — the Lost City of Bahia
interior Bahia, Brazil
Silver-rich ruined city
LEGENDnot mappable
Martin Weiberg's Sovereign Gold Robbery
Tarwin River area near Inverloch / Venus Bay, South Gippsland, Victoria
5,000 gold sovereigns (~40 kg)
PARTIALLY RECOVEREDnot mappable
Pacific WWII Caches
various Pacific islands
Unknown
LEGENDnot mappable
Paititi — the Lost Inca City of Gold
eastern Andes/Amazon, Peru–Bolivia
A city of gold
LEGENDnot mappable
Pirate Caches — Henry Morgan, et al.
Caribbean coasts
Unknown
LEGENDnot mappable
The Lost City of Z (Fawcett's Expedition)
Mato Grosso/Xingu, Brazil
Ancient city & riches
LEGENDnot mappable
The Lost Oasis of Zerzura
Western Desert, Egypt/Libya
White city of treasure
LEGENDnot mappable
Coordinates are interpreted search-area centers, not verified locations. 5 cases are fully rewritten; the rest are adapted from the master compilation with verified external links.