- 8 minutes ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:01Power and greed lead to the theft and eventual disappearance of Aztec gold.
00:07They call it la noche triste, the night of sorrows.
00:10Montezuma was mortally wounded, some say by his own subject,
00:14and the Spaniards fled with stolen gold worth an estimated $4 billion today.
00:20A mystery unravels after a piece of work from one of the world's literary greats goes missing.
00:27No manuscript or publication has ever surfaced.
00:31How could such an extraordinary work, created by one of history's greatest literary minds, simply disappear?
00:39The location of a sacred chest set to hold the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments has puzzled historians for centuries.
00:47To this day, the Ark's fate remains one of humanity's greatest mysteries.
00:52If it survived the fires of conquest, where could it be now?
00:57The chain of history has many missing links.
01:02Prominent people, priceless treasures, extraordinary artifacts,
01:07their locations still unknown, lost to the fog of time.
01:13What happens when stories of the past become vanished history?
01:20In 1520 C.E., Tenochtitlan, the capital of the mighty Aztec Empire, erupted in violence as the city's people launched an all-out rebellion,
01:41against unwelcome Spanish soldiers.
01:44Golden blood mingled in the waters of Lake Texcoco as the Spaniards fled, leaving behind a scene of devastation and an enduring mystery that would echo through centuries.
01:58When conquistador Hernán Cortes entered Tenochtitlan in 1519, he was impressed by the grandeur of it.
02:05Emperor Montezuma II greeted Cortes with reverence and caution, believing perhaps he was the long-awaited god, Quetzalcoatl, returning to fulfill Aztec destiny.
02:15But of course, Cortes wasn't a god.
02:18He was a conquistador driven by Spain's colonial desire for wealth and his own hunger for conquest.
02:25When Montezuma welcomed him with gifts as a gesture of goodwill, including a disc of gold and another of silver, it seems to have just added fuel to his greed.
02:35Cortes wanted the riches of the Aztec Empire for himself and for Spain.
02:41The Spaniards soon imposed their will, straining relations with the Aztecs.
02:48As tensions escalated, Cortes took Emperor Montezuma hostage in his own palace.
02:55Then, during the Toscaro Festival, a sacred time for the Aztecs, Spanish soldiers massacred thousands of Aztec nobles, sparking an uprising.
03:08They call it la noche triste, the night of sorrows.
03:11Montezuma was mortally wounded, some say by his own subjects.
03:15And the Spaniards fled with stolen gold worth an estimated $4 billion today.
03:21Attacked by Aztec warriors, many were killed or drowned, leaving only scattered fragments of gold along the city's causeways.
03:29In the chaos, the vast wealth of the Aztec Empire vanished.
03:34So where did Montezuma's gold go?
03:38Montezuma's treasure was more than gold and jewels.
03:43It symbolized the heart of an empire.
03:45The story began with a Spanish arrival in Tenochtitlan, a shimmering metropolis on Lake Texcoco, but would unravel into a tale of ambition, cultural collision, and the enduring enigma of a lost treasure.
04:01By the early 16th century, the Aztecs commanded an empire spanning 500 city-states and five to six million people.
04:08At its height, Tenochtitlan was home to at least 200,000 people, making it the most densely populated city Mesoamerica had ever seen.
04:16Tenochtitlan was a marvel of engineering, an island city set in the middle of Lake Texcoco, connected to the mainland by massive stone causeways that rose from the water like bridges.
04:29Its canals crisscrossed the city, serving as roads for canoes carrying everything from rare foods to luxury goods.
04:37At the heart of this vast, sophisticated empire stood Montezuma II, a ruler as formidable as the city he presided over.
04:48But when Cortez arrived, the Aztec empire faced a challenge unlike any before.
04:54Cortez knew he was outnumbered, so he forged alliances with indigenous groups like the Tlaxcalans, who resented Aztec dominance.
05:06The Spanish exploited these existing rivalries, turning local grievances into a force that would bring down an empire.
05:15The massacre during the Tlaxcalan Festival was the breaking point.
05:19It wasn't just an act of violence, it was a brutal desecration of Aztec tradition.
05:24With Montezuma dead, the city erupted, and the anger of a betrayed people turned Tenochtitlan into a fierce battleground.
05:32La Noche Tresce marked a turning point for the Spaniards. The losses were staggering, and not just in lives, but in the treasure they were after.
05:41Some believe the secrets of that night still linger in Tenochtitlan's waters.
05:47Some of those who believe in the legend of Montezuma's lost treasure think it could be buried beneath Tenochtitlan's ancient lake bed.
05:57Some say the Spanish cast their gold into the water around the causeways as they fled, and that it may still be hidden under what was once Lake Texcoco.
06:08It's also possible that the Aztecs may have hidden their wealth in water traps. These are deep underwater tunnels leading to submerged chambers where valuables could be stored.
06:20The entrances were concealed, and only those with knowledge of their location could access them.
06:27Over the centuries, Lake Texcoco was drained, and Mexico City was built on top of it. The original lake bed now lies beneath layers of sediment and urban development, complicating any search for the treasure.
06:40In 1981, a significant clue emerged when a construction worker discovered a large gold bar at a park in Mexico City.
06:49The bar weighed around four and a half pounds and was found along Cortez's escape route on La Noche Triste.
06:54It was later confirmed to date back to Montezuma's era.
06:57Some believe it fell into a canal on that night, suggesting that treasures may still lie beneath the city.
07:02The city's infrastructure, layered over the ancient lake bed, makes it hard to excavate.
07:10But even with advanced technology, the extensive searches haven't found anything significant.
07:15After decades of investigation, it seems less likely than ever that Montezuma's lost treasure lies beneath the city.
07:23As new worlds opened up, the promise of wealth and power may have carried Montezuma's treasure far from the empire, where it would vanish just as mysteriously.
07:38Maybe the treasure was lost at sea, far from the Mexican shores.
07:44When the Spanish reclaimed Tenochtitlan in 1521, they decimated the Aztec Empire, taking over 240,000 lives and, some say, recovering the lost riches of Montezuma.
07:59According to legend, parts of the treasure were then packed onto ships, setting sail from Veracruz bound for Spain.
08:09Much of this wealth was designated as a tribute to King Charles V to fulfill the royal quinto, the crown's 20% share.
08:17But one ship, reportedly weighed down with gold from Montezuma's treasure, is said to have encountered a violent storm, sinking somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico or possibly further into the Atlantic.
08:29Some believe the treasure escaped the coast entirely, hidden in lands beyond the Spanish Empire's grasp.
08:36Legends speak of Aztec priests and warriors who set out to safeguard their treasures by moving them out of Tenochtitlan.
08:44According to this story, around 8,000 Aztec soldiers traveled nearly 2,000 miles northward, possibly into what is now Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
08:55In the early 16th century, Spanish control barely extended beyond central Mexico and key coastal regions.
09:02So the remote lands of the American Southwest would have been ideal hiding places for the treasure.
09:07The Aztecs may have retraced ancient migration paths toward Aztlan, a lost homeland that, according to Aztec lore, was somewhere in the north.
09:14According to the popular myth, they carried tons of gold, silver, and sacred religious objects with them.
09:24Everything they needed to re-establish their civilization.
09:27Some people like to say the Aztecs hid the treasure somewhere along that journey, on a mountain on the edge of a desert, and then killed each other so their spirits could protect it forever.
09:39The treasure's rumored path northward has led to tales of hidden maps, ancient symbols, and fortune seekers determined to uncover its secret location.
09:52One of the most intriguing stories involves a prospector named Freddy Crystal, who in the early 20th century arrived in Kenob, Utah, with what he claimed was an ancient map pointing to Montezuma's treasure.
10:08He was convinced that the symbols carved into the cliffs around Johnson Canyon matched those on his map.
10:15So he enlisted locals to help with his search.
10:21Crystal spent years searching for the treasure in the Utah desert, and while his excavations uncovered tunnels and caverns, some with artifacts and human remains, he never found what he was looking for.
10:36Across the American Southwest, other treasure hunters have followed these legends, convinced the gold lies hidden in the vast, untamed landscape, with each story adding new layers to the mystery.
10:51In Three Lakes, Utah, about six miles north of Kenob, treasure hunter Brant Child discovered a rock carving he claimed was an Aztec symbol.
10:58He believed an underwater tunnel in one of the lakes led to a hidden chamber filled with Montezuma's lost gold.
11:05There are stories of divers exploring the tunnel who came back talking about equipment failures, getting disoriented, even ghostly visions, or the feeling of being choked, which helped fuel rumors the site was cursed or guarded by spirits.
11:20In Arizona, local legends suggest that Montezuma's treasure is hidden in the Superstition Mountains, a mysterious region with ancient cliff dwellings and caves.
11:33But decades of searching by treasure hunters hasn't turned up any trace of it.
11:38So wherever it may be, the treasure is still out there waiting to be found.
11:45Montezuma's lost treasure is more than gold and jewels.
11:49It's a story woven into the fabric of history, captivating those drawn to a world nearly erased, an empire whose splendor was matched only by its tragic fall.
12:02Over centuries, the legend of Montezuma's treasure has grown beyond its origins.
12:07It's become a symbol of resistance, a cultural touchstone that speaks to the strength of the Aztec spirit, even as their empire crumbled under Spanish conquest.
12:18Perhaps the treasure's true value is not in the gold and jewels, but in the lesson it offers, a story of colonial greed and standing up to oppression,
12:28and of a highly advanced society that ultimately vanished at the hands of the Europeans.
12:33As long as there are those who seek it, Montezuma's treasure endures, a symbol of lost worlds, a testament to defiance, and a mystery that refuses to die.
12:48Throughout history, few artifacts have captured the human imagination, like the Ark of the Covenant, a sacred chest said to hold the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai.
13:10Crafted under divine instruction, the Ark was revered as the most sacred object in ancient Israel, symbolizing God's covenant with his people.
13:23Jewish tradition says that the Ark held more than just the stone tablets.
13:27It also contained Aaron's rod, a symbol of divine authority that played a key role in God's plan to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into the Promised Land.
13:37And a golden jar of Nana, the mysterious food that sustained them in the desert.
13:43According to the Hebrew Bible, the Ark was initially housed within a movable shrine called the Tabernacle.
13:50But when Solomon's Temple was completed in Jerusalem in the 10th century BCE, an inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, was created to enshrine the Ark.
14:01Only the high priest could enter it, and only once a year, on Yom Kippur.
14:06For centuries, the Ark was the sacred centerpiece of Israelite worship.
14:11But after the Babylonian invasion in 587 BCE, and the destruction of Solomon's Temple, it vanished.
14:18To this day, the Ark's fate remains one of humanity's greatest mysteries.
14:25If it survived the fires of conquest, where could it be now?
14:29The Ark's journey from the Exodus to its enshrinement in Solomon's Temple is well documented.
14:39But during centuries of invasions and exiles, it disappeared from historical records, leaving only scattered clues to its fate.
14:48After the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of Solomon's Temple, many people were exiled and countless treasures were taken.
14:58But interestingly, the Babylonians' detailed records make no mention of the Ark.
15:03Also, the Hebrew scriptures go silent about it at this time, which is odd given the Ark's importance.
15:09However, it's been suggested that the Ark may have been taken earlier, perhaps during Egyptian Pharaoh Shishak's military campaign against the Kingdom of Judah in 926 BCE,
15:21one of the earliest recorded raids on Jerusalem's Temple.
15:25The Pharaoh reportedly seized many treasures, including Solomon's gold shields.
15:31But in apocryphal texts like the second book of Maccabees, there is a story that the prophet Jeremiah hit the Ark in a cave on Mount Nebo on the Jordan River's east bank,
15:43intending for it to stay hidden until God brings his people back together.
15:50These historical gaps and enigmatic references have fueled various theories about the Ark's fate.
15:57And with every new clue, there are new questions, keeping the quest for the Ark very much alive.
16:05Hidden in the depths of a cavern near the Dead Sea's ancient waters, a singular artifact surfaces, breathing new life into the enduring search for the Ark of the Covenant.
16:17Some believe that the Copper Scroll, discovered in 1952 in a cave on the West Bank, is an ancient treasure map that could lead directly to the Ark of the Covenant.
16:26This remarkable scroll lists 64 hidden locations where immense treasures from the first temple are allegedly located.
16:34The scroll mentions places like the cave of the old washer's chamber and in the salt pit under the steps.
16:41These descriptions are precise, yet cryptic, likely making sense only to those with intimate knowledge of the locations.
16:48While the scroll is straightforward in its listings, the use of religious terms like tithes and priestly vestments implies that the treasures had a sacred origin.
17:00It's a clue that priests or temple officials could have put this together to keep their most valuable items safe during times of crisis.
17:10But here's the problem. The Copper Scroll is dated between 25 AD and 100 AD, making a true connection to the Ark unlikely.
17:20Despite numerous searches over the decades, none of the treasures listed have been found, and the scroll makes no direct mention of the Ark.
17:29While the secrets of the Copper Scroll remain elusive, another path emerges from the annals of medieval history, leading to a mysterious order of warrior monks and their clandestine activities beneath Jerusalem's sacred grounds.
17:45Some believe the Knights Templar, a medieval Christian military order founded in the 12th century, may have uncovered the Ark.
17:55The Templars were deeply connected to the Holy Land during the Crusades, and for nearly 70 years they were stationed on the Temple Mount, the site traditionally associated with Solomon's Temple.
18:06The Templars weren't just warriors. They were on a quest for divine knowledge.
18:11During their time at the Temple Mount, they had unprecedented access to explore the ancient tunnels and chambers beneath the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which they believe held sacred relics.
18:25Located in Jerusalem's Old City, the site known as the Temple Mount in Judaism and Al-Haram Al-Sharif in Islam is home to sacred landmarks like the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
18:36It holds profound religious significance for multiple faiths.
18:43Historical accounts suggest the Templars discovered treasures like the Holy Grail, sacred texts, and perhaps the Ark itself, which might have contributed to the rapid rise in wealth and immense influence across Europe.
18:55As the Templars rose to power, a formidable force emerged in the East, Saladin, the Muslim Sultan of Egypt and Syria, who stunned the Western world by crushing the Crusader armies at Hattin and seizing a decisive victory that would change the course of history.
19:14When Saladin recaptured Jerusalem in 1187, the Templars had to retreat, and they likely took any treasures they'd found with them.
19:22There's a good chance they transported these sacred artifacts back to Europe, hiding them in places like their Paris headquarters or even Roslyn Chapel in Scotland, which is rumored to be modeled after Solomon's Temple.
19:35The Templars' connection to the Temple Mount is well documented, but any link between them and the Ark is mostly speculation.
19:46A lot of what we hear comes from myths and romanticized stories that emerged much later.
19:53Though the Templar secrets may be lost to time, another tale leads to the misty Ethiopian highlands, where a sacred sanctuary is set to guard a profound secret.
20:05According to the Ethiopian epic, the Ark was brought to Ethiopia by Menelik I, the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
20:16It is said to reside in the church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Aksum, guarded by a lineage of virgin monks who dedicate their lives to its protection.
20:26The Kebra Nagast is more than an epic. It's a foundational text that solidified Ethiopia's claim to the Ark and its royal lineage tracing back to Solomon and Sheba.
20:39This connection was so central to Ethiopia's identity that Emperor Haile Selassie even referenced it in the country's modern constitutions.
20:48For the faithful, the Ark's presence in Aksum, or present-day Eritrea, is at the heart of their heritage and national pride.
20:56Every church in the country has its own symbolic replica of the Ark, called a tabat.
21:02And every year, during the Timcat Festival, the tabats are paraded through the streets in celebration.
21:08According to Ethiopian legend, their country has been home to the Ark for nearly 3,000 years.
21:18It was said to have been hidden on Tana Kircos Island in Lake Tana, a place still home to a secluded community of monks,
21:25before King Ezana brought it back to Aksum in the fourth century as he spread Christianity.
21:30Today, the Ark is believed to reside in Aksum, in the Church of Mary of Zion.
21:35It's located within the Makdas, or Holy of Holies, which is a chamber shrouded in secrecy and accessible only by the guardian of the Ark.
21:44During World War II, British scholar and officer Edward Ullendorf claimed to have seen the Ark inside the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion.
21:53However, he later admitted it was just a replica, similar to those found in other Ethiopian churches.
22:00To this day, no outsider has verified the Ark's presence in Aksum, and there's no evidence to confirm the original Ark ever made it to Ethiopia.
22:12The Ark of the Covenant epitomizes humanity's eternal fascination with the unknown, serving as a powerful reminder that the most powerful quests are as much about the journey as the destination.
22:27The Ark is much more than just an object. It represents humanity's search for the divine, a powerful symbol of faith that still inspires and fascinates people today.
22:39Whether the Ark still exists may be less important than the legacy it leaves behind.
22:44It represents a covenant, a profound relationship between God and humanity, that endures in religious thought and practice.
22:53In the vibrant heart of Elizabethan London, two titans of the stage came together.
23:07William Shakespeare, a playwright at the height of his creative power, and John Fletcher, his destined successor, crafted a play that reflected the ambition of their era, the history of Cardinio.
23:20Written around 1612 or 1613, the history of Cardinio waves turbulent tales of love, betrayal, and reconciliation into a story inspired by Cervantes' Don Quixote.
23:32The play reflects a moment when Spanish art and culture poured into England after peace with Spain.
23:37Shakespeare's ability to illuminate the human condition, combined with Fletcher's sharp, lively dialogue, created a dynamic interplay that softened the play's intensity while adding depth and nuance.
23:49Together, their styles transformed the tale of Cervantes into a powerful drama that resonated with the audience.
23:56It looks like the play was performed at least twice during the 1612-1613 season.
24:05A researcher found a document, the accounts of the treasurer of the king's chamber, that lists payments for a play called Cardana or Cardano, which is probably just a short form for the history of Cardano.
24:18And it was put on by the king's men, the same acting company that we know Shakespeare worked with for nearly his entire career.
24:27But after these performances, the trail of Cardano goes cold.
24:32Over four centuries have passed and no manuscript or publication has ever surfaced.
24:38How could such an extraordinary work, created by one of history's greatest literary minds, simply disappear?
24:47The survival of Shakespeare's work owes much to the 1623 First Folio, a monumental effort to preserve 36 plays.
24:56But the history of Cardano, along with other works, was conspicuously absent.
25:03The First Folio was compiled by John Hemmings and Henry Condell.
25:07These were two actors who worked closely with Shakespeare as members of the king's men.
25:11Published seven years after his death, the First Folio preserved plays like Macbeth and The Tempest, which had never been printed before.
25:18Hemmings and Condell relied on a patchwork of prompt books, manuscripts, and actor recollections.
25:25These materials were usually incomplete or poorly preserved, and many plays had already been lost by the time they began their work.
25:32By 1623, the manuscript for the history of Cardano may have already been lost or inaccessible.
25:39We do have an exciting piece of evidence from 1653.
25:44That's when a publisher named Humphrey Moseley registered the history of Cardano in the Stationer's Register,
25:52which was an English record of artistic works.
25:56In it, he claims the play was written by Shakespeare and Fletcher, but he did also have a habit of claiming Shakespeare wrote plays he didn't actually write,
26:06so he could drum up more interest in them.
26:08So there's still plenty of doubt.
26:10And he never printed the play, so it's not even clear if he had a complete manuscript.
26:15Around 750 copies of the first folio were printed, and without it, 18 of Shakespeare's plays, including As You Like It and Julius Caesar, might have vanished forever.
26:26It's important to remember that before 1623, nearly half of his works existed only as quartos.
26:32These were single-play booklets made by folding large sheets of paper into smaller sections,
26:36and this was a fragile and impermanent format that left many texts vulnerable to loss.
26:41Some believe the play's fate was sealed by the fragile nature of the materials that once brought it to life.
26:49It's possible that the history of Cardinio was lost because early printed plays were seen as disposable.
26:55In the 17th century, acting companies like the King's Men treated scripts as tools.
26:59They were valuable for performances, but once a play's run ended, scripts were often discarded.
27:04Sometimes, even collectors didn't manage to preserve the works they collected.
27:10There was a bibliophile in the 1700s, John Warburton, who managed to get 60 rare manuscripts, including some performed by Shakespeare's acting company.
27:20But he stored them in his kitchen, where his cook ended up using them as pie liners and fire starters, so most of them were burned.
27:31And we know one of them was an unnamed play by Will Shakespeare.
27:36The English Civil War brought widespread economic hardship.
27:41It was a time when even paper was a precious commodity.
27:44It was labor-intensive, expensive, and made from scarce rags.
27:48It was so valuable that laws like the 1680 Act of Parliament even banned linen burials to save materials for paper production.
27:57Damp, pests, and fire were constant threats to fragile manuscripts and early printed texts.
28:04By the time the first folio was published in 1623, the history of Cardinio may have already fallen victim to these forces.
28:11But given Shakespeare's rising reputation by the mid-17th century, its complete disappearance certainly raises questions.
28:17Could neglect alone account for such a loss?
28:20Some stories never truly disappear.
28:24They linger, hidden in plain sight, waiting to be rediscovered.
28:29Lost works like the history of Cardinio might still be out there, hidden in uncatalogued archives or private collections.
28:36We've seen remarkable discoveries before, like the 1594 Quarto of Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare's first published play.
28:43It resurfaced in 1904 when a postal clerk in Sweden found it bound with 18th century lottery ads.
28:50In 2016, a previously unknown first folio was discovered at Mount Stewart House in Scotland, hidden away in the estate's library.
28:58Remarkably, it had been in the home since at least 1896 and once belonged to the influential 18th century Shakespearean editor Isaac Reid.
29:08The discovery was a shock to the literary world, as only 230 copies were thought to exist at the time.
29:15There are major libraries, like the Biblioteque Nationale in Madrid or the Vatican Library,
29:21which has 53 miles of shelves that still have vast collections that haven't been fully explored.
29:29So there is a chance someone will find the history of Cardinio someday.
29:34In 2014, a first folio surfaced in a French library.
29:40It was only identified when a librarian recognized its watermark.
29:44But there's a key difference.
29:46The first folio had multiple copies distributed widely, increasing the chance of survival.
29:52Cardinio, on the other hand, might never have been printed at all.
29:56Without the distribution and recognition afforded to works like the folio,
30:01the chances of finding even a fragment of Cardinio buried in some archive grow increasingly slum.
30:08There are those who believe Cardinio never truly disappeared.
30:16It's possible that the history of Cardinio lives on under a new name, double falsehood.
30:22In 1727, playwright and editor Louis Theobald claimed his play was adapted from three original manuscripts of Cardinio.
30:29As the first recognized Shakespeare scholar, Theobald's reputation certainly adds credibility to his claim,
30:34especially since he presented his work during a time of growing fascination with Shakespeare's legacy.
30:39Linguistic studies offer some support for this theory.
30:44Patterns in double falsehood align with Shakespeare and Fletcher's known collaboration styles.
30:49Act one to three feature Shakespeare's hallmarks, rich metaphors and emotional depth,
30:55while acts four and five reflect Fletcher's lighter conversational tone.
31:00But as double falsehood gained attention, skepticism surrounding Theobald's claims intensified.
31:09How much of Shakespeare and Fletcher's original work remains in double falsehood is unclear.
31:13But parts of the play feel too intricate to be entirely Theobald's creation.
31:18The play's overall theme of morality and vivid use of metaphor and trope, renowned soliloquies,
31:23and the equally complex portrayal of both male and female characters, suggest a foundation far richer than his imagination.
31:31Theobald probably revised the play to suit the tastes of his time.
31:35And those changes make it harder to figure out what's original and what's not.
31:39And since the edits blur the line between adaptation and full-on invention,
31:44they really raise a lot of questions about the authenticity of the manuscripts he claimed to have used as his sources.
31:53If double falsehood is truly based on Cardinio,
31:56the original manuscripts may have been lost in the devastating Drury Lane Theatre Fire of 1809,
32:01which destroyed countless irreplaceable theatrical records.
32:05Though there's no concrete evidence the manuscripts even survived until the fire,
32:09the idea that they influenced Theobald's work
32:11keeps double falsehood at the heart of the mystery surrounding Cardinio.
32:15The mystery of the history of Cardinio reflects both the fragility of literary heritage
32:20and humanity's unrelenting drive to uncover the past.
32:28The rediscovery of Cardinio would be priceless, both culturally and financially.
32:32In 2020, a first folio fetched nearly $10 million at auction.
32:36Beyond the monetary value, Cardinio would give us profound insights into Shakespeare's creative evolution and brilliant mind.
32:45Shakespeare's missing works remind us how easily cultural treasures can disappear.
32:50Without the foresight of Hemmings and Condal, plays like Macbeth and The Tempest,
32:55which had never been printed before, might have been lost as well.
32:57So whether the history of Cardinio survives as fragments, a hidden manuscript, or as double falsehood,
33:04it symbolizes Shakespeare's enduring genius and the timeless allure of the unknown.
33:10Shakespeare once wrote,
33:12The past is prologue.
33:13The fate of the history of Cardinio reminds us that even in loss, the past holds the power to inspire discovery.
33:21In the late 13th century, the great Mongolian emperor Kublai Khan wished to expand his already vast empire by conquering Japan.
33:37He sent hundreds of ships loaded with tens of thousands of warriors, along with war horses and a powerful new weapon to ensure a decisive victory.
33:51Mongolian warriors were renowned fighters.
33:56Their longbows at the time could fire a hundred yards further than any European bow,
34:01and Mongolian war horses were unmatched in their stamina.
34:05Their armies were fierce and feared.
34:08The Mongolians had a policy of showing mercy to those who surrendered willingly,
34:12while ruthlessly murdering those who offered resistance.
34:15It was a double incentive that often made their conquest go smoothly.
34:17So the Khan sent envoys to Japan to request they submit, but the Japanese refused.
34:23That decided it.
34:25Kublai would show no mercy.
34:27He sent an overwhelming force, hundreds of ships, with over a hundred thousand armed fighters,
34:33to decisively conquer and dominate Japan's defenses.
34:36But the conquest didn't happen.
34:38Japan is still Japan, and very few of Kublai's ships made it back home.
34:42The rest of the ships, and their men, had vanished.
34:47The mystery has endured for hundreds of years, and spawned legends.
34:51So, what could have happened to Kublai Khan's lost ships?
34:55Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, was a skilled commander who planned his military campaigns in masterful detail.
35:06By 1271, he established the Yuan dynasty, comprising Mongolia, most of present-day China, the Koreas, and other areas.
35:20Many Mongols criticized Kublai for his adoption of Chinese customs, and cast doubt on his validity as a true Mongolian leader.
35:28To them, and maybe to himself, Kublai had yet to prove himself. Taking Japan would remedy that situation.
35:37In 1274, Kublai formulated a plan to smash Japan's defenses in one blow.
35:43He sent about 900 warships, with roughly 30,000 men, to land at Hakata Bay.
35:48Though the Japanese resisted fiercely, by the first nightfall, a third of them were dead,
35:52and the rest of them couldn't expect to last another day.
35:53But when dawn broke, the Mongol ships had vanished.
35:57The story is that a massive typhoon had come through in the night, threatening the weakened Mongolian ships.
36:04So they returned home.
36:06But there have been questions about how powerful that storm may have been, or if it happened at all.
36:11Japan gets a lot of typhoons, but not at that time of year.
36:17About 300 of the 900 ships were never seen again.
36:20Had they sunk? Or deserted?
36:24Something had happened to them.
36:26It was an inexplicable loss that Kublai had to come back from.
36:31The Khan sent more representatives to Japan, to see if they'd changed their minds about giving in.
36:37The Japanese decapitated the envoys, and mounted their heads on sticks.
36:42A grievous insult, forcing Kublai Khan to respond in kind.
36:47He planned to send a fleet of 900 ships with 40,000 men from Korea, present-day South Korea.
36:54He would send another fleet from the Yangshi River Delta, consisting of 3,500 ships and 140,000 men.
37:03The two divisions would converge at Iki Island, and then sail to Hakata Bay together to make their attack.
37:08But Kublai wanted more ships than he had.
37:12He ordered 600 built in a hurry at the Lower Yangtze River, and the tree-lined hillsides along the coast were stripped bare to supply timber.
37:19Even that didn't make enough ships.
37:21And so hundreds of civilian vessels and crews from China's vast inland canal networks were conscripted into military duty.
37:27This time, the Mongol forces were going to obliterate Japan's resistance.
37:30But that didn't happen. The second attack on Japan also failed. So what could have gone wrong?
37:38It's even been suggested that the grand scale of Kublai Khan's invasion could have had something to do with the missing ships.
37:46The Khan wanted to send more warships than he had, and more than he could have properly made in time.
37:51The fleet he hastily cobbled together may not have been seaworthy, let alone fit for battle.
37:57In 1981, underwater remains of Mongol ships were discovered not far from Iki Island.
38:03Some of the fragmented shipwrecks had nails clustered five or six in one place, suggesting it was made of reused timber and sloppily constructed, possibly by less experienced shipwrights.
38:15Too many nails in one spot doesn't make a joint stronger, it weakens it.
38:19Of the wrecks found, none of them had V-shaped hulls. They were flat-bottomed.
38:26That makes sense when you consider that many of them were merchant vessels conscripted from China's network of canals.
38:32Flat-bottoms are perfect for that, but they're not suited to ocean travel and can break up in high waves.
38:39But all that evidence comes from ships that sank in and around Hakata Bay,
38:44which means they'd already survived the most difficult part of the journey.
38:47If they'd been that unseaworthy, they wouldn't even have made it to Japan.
38:52But they had.
38:54So unseaworthiness alone is not a satisfactory answer to why Kublai's immaculate plan failed.
39:01Not once, but twice.
39:02Out of necessity, Kublai Khan worked this campaign out in meticulous detail.
39:09Because once set in motion, the conflict would take place far away from where he was.
39:14The Khan's plan was nearly flawless, but the one flaw it may have had was that it depended on his commander's understanding it and carrying it out to the letter.
39:24Poor communication and poor execution may have caused everything to go sideways.
39:27Think about it.
39:29Kublai Khan would have been in his palace in Khanbalik, modern day Beijing.
39:34The two divisions he wanted to send were supposed to leave from ports that were each about 650 miles from where he was and a good 600 miles from one another.
39:43The plan was for them to depart at the same time and then rendezvous, but it just didn't happen that way.
39:53The commander of one of the divisions left early and took up fighting the Japanese on the small islands near Hakata Bay.
40:00Meanwhile, the other division was delayed by several months, so the two fleets didn't arrive at Hakata anywhere near the same time.
40:07Sending information over great distances was slow in the 13th century, but there may have been other communication challenges as well.
40:19One of those two divisions was made up mostly of Chinese fighters.
40:24The other comprised a mix of Mongolian and Korean soldiers.
40:28So now you've got people with different first languages relaying complex instructions.
40:33It would have been easy for things to get lost in translation.
40:37But even given the slip ups in timing, the Mongol forces had the numbers and firepower to defeat Japan.
40:43So it's still hard to comprehend how they could have failed.
40:46The fearsome reputation of Kublai's military sometimes helped them forego battle altogether.
40:51Opponents might surrender under the mere threat of attack.
40:55But here, their reputation may have worked against them.
40:59The Japanese may have been prepared and fought better than the Mongols expected.
41:02And seeing as they'd decapitated the Khan's diplomatic envoys, they knew there'd be no mercy if they were defeated.
41:09That alone would have been a powerful motivator.
41:10Remains of a stone wall were discovered at Hakata Bay, about 165 feet in from the beach.
41:20Five to eight feet tall and wide, and about 12 and a half miles long.
41:25Likely a defensive wall the Japanese started building soon after the Mongols first attempted invasion.
41:30It would have provided a crucial defensive advantage when the Mongol warriors landed.
41:37Beneath the bay, archaeologists have discovered proof of the intensity of the battle.
41:43Spherical ceramic shells filled with gunpowder, some with iron shrapnel inside.
41:48They're the oldest examples of exploding projectiles ever found and were known to have been employed by the Mongols.
41:55Contemporary accounts claim that the Mongols were unable to breach Japan's defensive wall, so they fell back to their ships and tried catapulting ceramic bombs at it.
42:08The effect was devastating to those within range of the blasts, but it wasn't enough to breach the defenses.
42:14The battle devolved into a temporary stalemate, and the Mongols fell back to camp on Sheikah Island, about five miles offshore, perhaps waiting for the arrival of the second division.
42:25Knowing that, as fiercely as the Japanese had been defending themselves, when that second division arrived, Japan would have no chance.
42:34They managed a stalemate against 40,000 troops, but what would happen when another 100,000 arrived?
42:40In 2014, scientists studying 2,000 years of sedimentary deposits at a small coastal lake, less than 100 miles south of Akata Bay, made a remarkable find.
42:53The lake is right on the coastline, so when a big storm, like a typhoon, sediments from the ocean can get blown into it and trapped there.
43:01The sentiments show that the two biggest, most distinct marine source deposits in 2,000 years correspond to 1274 and 1281 CE, precisely the years of Kublai Khan's failed invasions of Japan.
43:17The Mongol fleets that attacked the second time were wiped out by a sudden, devastating typhoon in the middle of the ferocious battle with the Japanese.
43:25The storm was one of the worst in the region's history.
43:30Computer modeling suggests waves generated by a typhoon that powerful would be between 13 and 20 feet high, perfectly capable of wrecking Kublai Khan's ships.
43:40It's said that of the soldiers that survived the typhoon and the shipwrecks, the Japanese forces beheaded between 20 and 30,000 of them and enslaved about 12,000.
43:51The typhoons of 1274 and 1281 CE are rare documented cases of weather events, altering geopolitical outcomes.
44:02One might think that after two failed attempts, two miraculous interventions, Kublai Khan might have given up trying to conquer Japan.
44:12But he didn't. He planned a third invasion.
44:14However, other factors intervened and he never got the opportunity.
44:19Japan did stay at the ready, though, for a good 20 years.
44:23The Japanese people started to refer to the typhoons of 1274 and 1281 as kamikaze, which means divine wind.
44:31And a legend took root that the gods had intervened to save Japan.
44:34Six and a half centuries later, the legend and the term kamikaze were repurposed and used to compel young Japanese pilots to fly their explosive laden planes into the decks of allied ships.
44:47The area around Takashima, where Kublai Khan's fleets vanished and spawned an enduring mystery, is now a renowned underwater archaeological site and less than 1% of it has been explored.
45:01There's more we may learn about what exactly happened all those centuries ago and the human costs on either side.
45:08on either side.
Be the first to comment