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00:01Five U.S. Navy bombers mysteriously disappear while flying over the Bermuda Triangle.
00:07The plan seemed pretty straightforward.
00:10A familiar route flown countless times by other squadrons, and it should have been routine.
00:15So how does an entire squadron, followed closely by its rescuers, simply disappear?
00:21The tomb of Egypt's notorious queen, Cleopatra, is lost to the sands of time.
00:27Cleopatra was Egypt's last pharaoh.
00:29Maybe the world's first celebrity, and maybe the greatest queen the world's ever known.
00:34Where is Cleopatra's last tomb?
00:38The vast treasures of the Knights Templar vanish without a trace.
00:42On the 13th of October, 1307, more than 600 Templars were swept up and interrogated under torture,
00:49which many of them didn't survive.
00:51Once the Knights were all dead or gone, very little of their gold turned up, and it still hasn't.
00:57So what happened to the treasures of the Knights Templar?
01:00The chain of history has many missing links.
01:05Prominent people, priceless treasures, extraordinary artifacts.
01:10Their locations still unknown, lost to the fog of time.
01:15What happens when stories of the past become vanished history?
01:24On December 5th, 1945, five U.S. Navy TBM Avenger torpedo bombers roared off the runway at Naval Air Station, Fort Lauderdale.
01:48Under the command of Lieutenant Charles C. Taylor, the squadron embarked on a routine training mission.
01:54But what began as a simple operation would end as one of aviation's greatest mysteries.
02:00The plan seemed pretty straightforward.
02:04Head east to a place called Hen and Chicken Shoals for bombing practice,
02:09then north over Grand Bahama Island, and finally southwest back to Florida.
02:14It was a familiar route flown countless times by other squadrons, and it should have been routine.
02:20Lieutenant Taylor had more than 2,500 flight hours and years of experience under his belt,
02:26including extensive combat experience in the Pacific Theater.
02:30He was the kind of leader you'd trust in any situation.
02:33But even the most seasoned pilots can find themselves overwhelmed by unpredictable factors,
02:38especially in the treacherous conditions of the Atlantic.
02:40As daylight faded, the radio transmissions from Flight 19 grew increasingly troubling,
02:47until their final message dissolved into a buzz of static.
02:52By nightfall, all five planes and their 14 crew members had vanished without a trace,
02:58along with the twin-engine PBM Mariner rescue craft that had been sent to find them,
03:03which carried 13 more men.
03:05By nightfall, all five planes and their 14 crew members had vanished without a trace,
03:17along with the twin-engine PBM Mariner rescue craft that had been sent to find them,
03:22which carried 13 more men.
03:25The disappearance of Flight 19 wasn't an isolated event.
03:29In the infamous waters of the Bermuda Triangle,
03:32unexplained phenomena and human error have long converged,
03:37sparking endless debate about the balance between mystery and misstep.
03:42Flight 19 solidified the Bermuda Triangle's reputation as a place where reality and the unexplained collide.
03:51Over the years, it's become one of the defining stories behind the speculation surrounding this area,
03:58linked to strange occurrences, navigational errors, and the disappearances of ships and planes.
04:06Pilots knew their aircraft and the region.
04:09Nearly every Avenger had a crew of three Marines or Navy personnel.
04:14Only one of them had two crew members.
04:16And even the trainees had already logged about 300 flight hours each.
04:21Their flight leader, Taylor, had 2,500.
04:23Weather conditions at the start were ideal.
04:28Clear skies and calm seas.
04:30Flight 19 took off just after 2 p.m., about 25 minutes behind schedule.
04:35But by 3 p.m., they'd completed their torpedo runs at Hen and Chicken Shoals without incident.
04:41Everything seemed to be progressing as planned,
04:43and they were on course to return to Fort Lauderdale by 5.30 p.m.
04:47As the squadron prepared to shift to their next leg, unforeseen challenges began to take hold.
04:56At around 3.45 p.m., a flight instructor picked up a transmission from Flight 19.
05:02It was clear they were lost.
05:04They believed they had veered off the Florida Keys and into the Gulf of Mexico,
05:10despite being far north near the Bahamas.
05:13As a result of this misjudgment, Taylor ordered the squadron northeast into the open Atlantic,
05:21putting the flight up to 200 miles off course and deeper into danger.
05:28Over the next two hours, Flight 19 kept changing direction.
05:32They were desperately searching for home.
05:35More than 20 ground stations scrambled to track them, but for ages, nothing showed up.
05:40Even their IFF transmitters, identification friend or foe, which should have made them visible,
05:46didn't register or weren't turned on, so the squadron was completely off-grid.
05:51By 6 p.m., signal antennas finally located Flight 19,
05:55approximately 75 miles northeast of Fort Lauderdale,
05:58showing just how far off course they'd flown.
06:00With barely an hour of fuel left, their chances of survival were fading fast.
06:04In Taylor's final transmission, just 30 minutes later,
06:08the garbled, fading voices painted a haunting picture of their plight.
06:12Lost, out of time, and powerless.
06:16Over the next five days, the Coast Guard and Navy combed more than 250,000 square miles of the Atlantic and Gulf.
06:24But their efforts yielded nothing.
06:26No wreckage, no life rafts, no trace at all.
06:29In the end, the search brought no answers, only more questions.
06:34In the endless expanse of sea and sky,
06:38Flight 19 vanished into a realm where certainty gave way to chaos,
06:42testing the limits of both man and machine.
06:47Lieutenant Taylor's radio transmission revealed one potential cause of this tragedy,
06:53navigational disorientation.
06:55He mistakenly believed the squadron had drifted over the Florida Keys,
07:01when in reality, they were further north near the Bahamas.
07:06His mistake pulled them off course,
07:09leading them deeper into the vast, unforgiving Atlantic.
07:13A little after 4 p.m., Taylor reported that both of his compasses were malfunctioning.
07:19So he had no reliable instruments and tried to lead his squadron home by using visual landmarks and instinct.
07:28The Navy's protocol for disoriented pilots was clear,
07:32turned west, and fly toward the setting sun.
07:35This failsafe was ingrained in training and designed to guide aviators back to land.
07:40But Taylor, convinced they were over the Gulf of Mexico, ignored this procedure and directed the squadron northeast,
07:48straight into the open ocean.
07:51Radio transcripts show the escalating tension within the squadron
07:55as the trainees began to question Taylor's decisions.
07:58The situation quickly deteriorated until it bordered on hysteria.
08:06One pilot was overheard saying,
08:08if we'd just fly west, we'd get home.
08:12But Taylor doubled down on his error,
08:15which is a phenomenon known as cognitive lock-up.
08:19That's when stress narrows focus and leaders become fixated on wrong assumptions,
08:24despite mounting evidence to the contrary.
08:27It's hard to believe navigational error alone explains everything.
08:33Sure, Taylor's misjudgment might have started the chain of events,
08:36but the complete lack of wreckage and the silence from the distress systems,
08:40that hints at something else being part of the story.
08:44While human error offers part of the explanation,
08:48unanswered questions linger,
08:50hinting at complications and failures that may have turned confusion into catastrophe.
08:55Mechanical issues and communication failures may have played a pivotal role
09:00in the disappearance of Flight 19.
09:03Despite pre-flight inspections showing no major faults,
09:07reports of mid-flight malfunctions painted a different picture.
09:11Navigational aids went silent,
09:13and crucial systems failed to transmit data.
09:17Whether the breakdown was because of mechanical issues or interference
09:21or just the chaos and stress of the moment,
09:24the result was that communication with the outside world was eventually lost,
09:29and the squadron was utterly alone.
09:32Among the most puzzling failures was the absence of a signal
09:37from the identify friend or foe transmitter.
09:41The IFF transmitter, standard in military aircraft,
09:45would have made Flight 19's location much more visible in real time to ground stations.
09:50But records show it was never engaged.
09:53These systems were highly reliable,
09:55but mechanical strain, electrical surges,
09:57or even operator error could render them useless.
09:59What's really odd is that no distress signals were ever picked up,
10:04even though all the planes had emergency transmitters
10:07meant to broadcast their location automatically.
10:10They stayed completely silent.
10:14And then there's the PBM Mariner Rescue Plane.
10:16It had equipment specifically designed to detect those signals,
10:20but it too vanished without a trace.
10:23While individual malfunctions are possible,
10:26the likelihood of all five planes suffering the same critical failures at once,
10:33it's hard to believe.
10:35It suggests there's more to the story,
10:38and possibly a larger force at play,
10:41something that intensified their struggle to navigate and communicate.
10:45Mechanical and communication failures provide part of the picture,
10:50but the true nature of what unfolded may lie hidden in the volatile forces of the sea and sky.
10:57One theory is that a sudden storm could have sealed their fate.
11:01A white squall can strike without warning, even on clear days.
11:06And by late afternoon, the skies had darkened and conditions were deteriorating.
11:11There was torrential rain and high winds.
11:14Dense cloud cover could have been disorienting
11:16and create potentially dangerous conditions for low-flying aircraft.
11:20By 4 p.m., the storm intensified,
11:25with Miami's weather station recording winds of 40 miles per hour at 1,000 feet
11:30and hurricane-force gusts of 75 miles per hour at higher altitudes.
11:36These conditions likely engulfed the squadron,
11:39leaving them little chance of survival.
11:42Adding to the danger was the Gulf Stream.
11:45This powerful current moving at up to 5 miles per hour
11:49would have scattered any debris or survivors over vast distances.
11:55Even the strongest search efforts would have struggled against such relentless forces.
12:01But the tragedy wasn't confined to Flight 19.
12:05The rescue plane sent to find them, a PBM mariner,
12:10met its own tragic fate, adding to the mystery.
12:13Less than 30 minutes after takeoff, the crew radioed the tower,
12:17saying they were getting close to Flight 19's last assumed position.
12:22But not long after that, all contact was lost.
12:26The plane and its 13 crew members were never heard from again.
12:32PBM mariners, known as flying gas tanks,
12:35were notoriously volatile and prone to catastrophic accidents and turbulent conditions.
12:39In rough weather, their flexible fuel lines tended to get loose and leak gas,
12:44which could cause mid-air explosions.
12:46The fact that witnesses described seeing a fireball and an oil slick
12:49where the rescue plane went down fuels this theory.
12:53While we may never know definitively what happened on that tragic day,
12:57there was a silver lining.
12:59The lessons of Flight 19 helped shape a safer future for aviation.
13:03There were real lessons to be learned.
13:07The tragedy highlighted problems in naval aviation,
13:10such as inconsistent training standards, excessive corner cutting.
13:14In the 1950s, a big report, the Flatley report,
13:17would finally lead to a whole series of reforms that transformed flight safety.
13:23The Navy's subsequent investigation into Flight 19 took several months.
13:27The final report described the disappearance as a tragic convergence
13:31of navigational errors and environmental challenges.
13:35An initial finding of mental aberration was later overturned
13:38at Lieutenant Taylor's mother's request,
13:40leaving the investigation's final ruling as inconclusive.
13:44The disappearance of Flight 19 stands as a poignant reminder
13:48of the fragile balance between humanity and nature
13:51and the unanswered questions that continue to haunt us.
13:57From the early 12th century CE,
14:09the Knights Templar were legendary, righteous, and fearsome enforcers,
14:13known throughout Europe and the Levant.
14:16Through their exploits, they reaped enough wealth
14:18to finance holy wars and bankroll kings.
14:22The Knights Templar were created to protect Christians
14:25who were making pilgrimages to Jerusalem and the Holy Land.
14:28But in the process of doing that,
14:30they acquired hundreds of castle fortresses
14:32and enormous portable wealth,
14:34a great deal of it being gold or gold coins.
14:38Almost two centuries after the Order of the Knights Templar was formed,
14:42Muslim warriors determined to drive all Christians out of the Holy Land,
14:47cornered the Templars, and decimated them in a fierce battle.
14:50The Knights had always operated with the blessings of the Church and the throne of France.
14:56But when the end came, both turned against them.
15:00The Knights were arrested in Europe and charged as traitors and heretics.
15:04Many were publicly executed.
15:06It was a stunning betrayal.
15:08The vast hoard of gold and other valuables the Templars had amassed
15:12were supposed to go to the King of France.
15:14But it didn't.
15:15Once the Knights were all dead or gone,
15:18very little of their gold turned up, and it still hasn't.
15:21So what happened to the treasures of the Knights Templar?
15:25The poor fellow soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon
15:29were founded in Jerusalem in 1119 CE by a French knight.
15:34Eventually, their name was shortened to the Knights Templar.
15:37The Templars were supposed to live communally, like monks.
15:43They took strict vows of chastity, obedience, and poverty.
15:46They wore a distinctive white cloak,
15:48indicating purity with a bold red cross emblazoned on it.
15:52One of their emblems was two knights riding together on one horse,
15:56the very picture of poverty and humility.
15:58But the thing is, their operations required resources.
16:02The Catholic Church's doctrine allowed fighting for just causes,
16:07like the defense of the Holy Land and the Crusade.
16:10So within a decade of the Templars' formation,
16:13they won recognition from the Pope.
16:15They took land and reaped riches from their conquests in the Holy Land.
16:20By the 1300s, they were a true international military order,
16:24with estates from England to Bohemia.
16:26Ultimately, they owned over 870 estates across Europe.
16:29They even had enough money to build their own naval fleet
16:32to ship goods that their estates produced, and for military use.
16:37They had so much money that at one point,
16:39they were able to lend France's King Philip IV 400,000 gold florins,
16:44which in hindsight may not have been a wise thing to do.
16:47In April of 1291 CE, with a company of Templar knights holed up
16:52in their headquarters in Acre, Jerusalem,
16:55the Mamluk Sultanate's relentless throngs breached the fortress walls.
17:00And with that, the image of knights Templar everywhere was fatally tarnished.
17:06For France's King Philip IV, who owed the Templars a great deal of money,
17:11this was a golden opportunity to not only have his debts erased,
17:15but to get his hands on the Templars' legendary fortunes.
17:19Philip issued a secret order for the arrest of all knights Templar throughout France,
17:24on charges of everything from denying Christ and heresy,
17:27to financial improprieties and homosexuality.
17:30And on Philip's urging, the Pope mandated the arrest of all Templars across Europe.
17:35On the 13th of October, 1307, more than 600 Templars were swept up
17:40and interrogated under torture, which many of them didn't survive.
17:44Of those who did survive and were brought to trial,
17:47dozens were convicted and burned at the stake, including the Grand Master.
17:51By 1312, the order of the Templar knights was officially dissolved.
17:55With the order no longer in existence, Philip IV was freed of his debt
17:59and free to confiscate the Templars' large treasury.
18:03Philip did get some of their riches, but very little.
18:08Somehow, the Knights Templar had managed to hide or move or escape
18:12with much of their portable wealth.
18:15Speculation as to what happened to that treasure continues to this day.
18:20The most obvious place for the Templars to have kept the bulk of their treasures
18:24would also have been the hardest place for anyone to remove it from.
18:28It would make perfect sense if the Knights Templar had secured their riches
18:33in the main tower of their fortress at Akkor,
18:36where they made their last stand against the Mamluk.
18:39The tower was built for protection.
18:41Basically, it was a heavily gated tower within walls 28 feet thick,
18:46surrounded by a fortress inside another fortress.
18:48The only catch is that the Templars were under siege there for weeks by the Mamluks,
18:53who pounded the castle day and night.
18:55And when the Mamluks finally gained entry,
18:58there's no record of their finding a stash of treasure.
19:00So, if it had been there,
19:02how could the Templars possibly have gotten it out before they were conquered?
19:05In 1994, a resident in the town of Akkor looked into a sewer drainage problem
19:11they'd been having under their home
19:12and discovered an underground passageway cut through the bedrock.
19:16This was a secret tunnel running from where the fortress had been at one end,
19:21almost 500 feet eastwards to the internal anchorage of Akkor's port,
19:26large enough for men to run through with cartloads of whatever goods they wanted to carry.
19:31The Templars would have been able to smuggle every last gold coin out of the tower
19:37while the Mamluks siege raged above their heads.
19:41But if that's true,
19:42if they did get their treasure out through this tunnel,
19:45the question remains,
19:47where is it now?
19:50Trying to find the Templars' treasure today
19:53is like playing a shell game that happened nine centuries ago
19:56with many, many shells.
19:58The Templars had a very practical philosophy about money.
20:02Keep it moving.
20:04They realized that if they allowed the accumulation of any large amount of money in any one place,
20:09others had time to find out where it was and to plan and execute raids to get it.
20:13Wealth was less vulnerable to raids if it was spread out in many places and moved frequently.
20:19The Templars had developed a whole network of underground safe houses they could escape to.
20:23And between these safe houses, they could move parcels of wealth,
20:27especially if they had warning.
20:29And they did have warning.
20:31King Philip's secret order for the arrest of the Knights Templar in France
20:34was issued on September 14th, 1307,
20:38a full four weeks before it said the arrests were to be carried out.
20:41According to contemporary accounts,
20:43the Grand Master arranged for more than 2,000 Knights Templar
20:46and the Templars' treasures
20:47to be loaded onto 18 ships at the port of La Rochelle before the arrests.
20:52Two ships and about 620 Templars,
20:55including the Grand Master, stayed behind,
20:58which may have been a self-sacrifice,
21:01an intentional diversion.
21:03Thanks to that,
21:04it appears more than 2,000 of their fellow Knights
21:07were able to sail away in the other ships,
21:09possibly taking much of their treasure with them.
21:12Some believe the key to finding the treasure
21:16won't be to focus on where the Templars might have escaped to with it,
21:20but to consider instead the possibility the Templars
21:23may have failed disastrously in the end.
21:26The Knights Templar and their gold
21:28may have escaped by boat from La Rochelle or elsewhere,
21:31only if to have sunk in the bottom of the sea.
21:34Countless sailing ships have gone down over the centuries
21:37due to storms or other bad luck,
21:39let alone while making a rushed departure
21:41overloaded with men and cargo.
21:45In 2016, excavation began
21:47on the remains of a ship found in the Bay of Haifa,
21:50and it was one of those rare shipwrecks
21:52that seems to tell a whole story.
21:55In terms of wood,
21:56only bits of the hull and keel and planking survived.
22:00Radiocarbon dating indicated
22:02that the wood was grown somewhere
22:03between 1062 and 1250 CE.
22:07There were ceramics from Syria, Cyprus, and Italy,
22:11and there were also 30 gold florins,
22:14coins that were minted in the Republic of Florence
22:16in the mid-13th century.
22:18This ship may well have been piloted
22:20or commissioned by the Knights Templar,
22:22escaping the Mamluks during the siege at Akko in 1291.
22:26They might have snuck out from under their fortress
22:28via the secret tunnel to board a ship
22:30waiting in the inner harbour.
22:32The gold florins may have been part of the Templar's treasure
22:35that was being transported,
22:37and perhaps what was paid to the ship's captain
22:40as a bribe to help escape the chaos.
22:44The Haifa wreck is one ship out of many
22:47that may have successfully left Akko during the siege,
22:50and of the 18 sent to have left the port of La Rochelle in 1307,
22:55none have been located.
22:56It's intriguing.
22:59If some of the Templars did make a successful escape
23:02with their treasure, where might they have ended up?
23:04Plenty of places have been suggested.
23:08Carvings in Rossland Chapel in Edinburgh
23:10suggest some Knights Templar may have escaped to Scotland.
23:13Could they have hidden some of their treasure there?
23:16Switzerland's national flag
23:18is the exact reverse of the Knights Templar motif.
23:21It's a white cross over a red background,
23:24and the beloved Swiss rescue dog
23:26now shares its name
23:27with the Templar's patron Saint Bernard de Clairvaux.
23:31It's known the Templars were active in that area
23:34around that time,
23:35so some of their gold could have ended up there,
23:38and there are plenty of places still left to look for it.
23:42The Knights Templar were a legendary forest
23:44that might not always have fought with the purest of motives.
23:48The stunning wealth they amassed during their conquests
23:51may well have caused their ruin before,
23:54like the Knights themselves,
23:56vanishing into history.
24:09In the year 30 BCE,
24:12in Egypt's capital of Alexandria,
24:14Queen Cleopatra was barricaded
24:16behind heavy wooden doors,
24:18surrounded by her greatest treasures
24:19and the body of her partner, Mark Antony.
24:23She sent a letter to her conquering enemy, Octavian,
24:26with one last request,
24:28that she and Antony be allowed to rest
24:31an eternity together.
24:34Cleopatra was Egypt's last pharaoh,
24:37maybe the world's first celebrity,
24:39and maybe the greatest queen the world's ever known.
24:41She was multilingual, charismatic, intelligent, educated,
24:45and a brilliant strategist.
24:47To the public, she was perceived as a goddess,
24:50the new Isis.
24:54Cleopatra had ruled Egypt with two of her brothers.
24:58She had married at least one of them
25:00and ultimately had both of them killed.
25:03And she had had children by two powerful Romans,
25:08Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.
25:12Cleopatra died just days
25:14after she sent that final letter.
25:17But the place where she was buried is a mystery.
25:20People have been searching for centuries,
25:22trying to answer one of history's greatest questions.
25:26Where is Cleopatra's lost tomb?
25:29Cleopatra VII was born in Egypt
25:32to a long line of Greek pharaohs.
25:35When she took the throne at 18 in 51 BCE,
25:38the family's dynasty was fading.
25:41But she was determined to turn her fortunes around.
25:44So, four years into her reign,
25:46when Julius Caesar came to Egypt,
25:48she recognized the opportunity.
25:51Cleopatra took Caesar
25:53on a week-long sightseeing tour of the Nile
25:55and became pregnant with his child.
25:58After Caesar returned to Rome,
26:00Cleopatra gave birth to their son,
26:03Caesarion, or Little Caesar.
26:05A powerful, useful diplomatic bond
26:08had been formed.
26:11When Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE,
26:15all bets were off.
26:17Cleopatra needed new diplomatic security with Rome.
26:20So when Mark Antony,
26:21the controller of Rome's eastern territories,
26:24summoned Cleopatra for a talk
26:26to gauge her loyalty to Rome,
26:28that was her second opportunity.
26:32Cleopatra started having an affair with Mark Antony,
26:36which was a little bit complicated
26:38since he still went ahead
26:40and married Octavian's sister,
26:43even while having his love affair with Cleopatra.
26:46Mark Antony then went so far
26:49as to give Cleopatra back territories
26:51Rome had previously won from Egypt.
26:54It was all too much for Octavian to take.
26:56It seemed Antony wasn't thinking with his head.
26:59This was a line in the sand
27:00that could not be crossed,
27:02and Octavian declared war against Cleopatra.
27:06Cleopatra was experienced in battle.
27:08She soon realized
27:09they couldn't win against Octavian.
27:11She pulled her squadron out of the fight
27:14and withdrew to the safety of her palace in Alexandria.
27:18Mark Antony fled as well,
27:20leaving his soldiers to continue on their own.
27:23This was a major conflict,
27:26a personal grudge match
27:28with tens of thousands of soldiers on either side
27:31and hundreds of warships.
27:34Mark Antony's forces had the advantage in numbers,
27:37but it was still Octavian who ultimately won.
27:40In Alexandria,
27:43Cleopatra surrounded herself
27:45with all of her greatest treasures
27:46in a beautiful mausoleum she had built
27:49near her palace.
27:51And then she waited.
27:53Mark Antony threw himself on his sword.
27:55He was carried to Cleopatra's side
27:57and died in her arms.
27:59According to the famous legend,
28:02Cleopatra had a poisonous snake
28:04smuggled in and let it bite her
28:07so that she died from the venom.
28:09According to some ancient accounts,
28:11Octavian granted her wish
28:13and ordered that she be buried with Mark Antony
28:16in splendid and regal fashion.
28:19But those sources don't tell us where.
28:24In the 2,000 years since Cleopatra's death,
28:27nobody has been able to find Cleopatra
28:29in Mark Antony's crypt.
28:32Only in 2004 did one investigator decide
28:35everyone had been ignoring the most important clues.
28:39It would make a lot of sense
28:41if Cleopatra were buried somewhere
28:43at the temple complex of Taposiris Magna,
28:4628 miles west of Alexandria.
28:50Taposiris Magna means the great tomb of Osiris,
28:54a god Mark Antony had been associated with in life.
28:58And archaeologists always knew
29:00there had been a temple of Osiris at that site.
29:04But in 2005, a new discovery got everyone's attention.
29:10The outlines of a second temple
29:13were found inside the complex,
29:15laid out in three rooms,
29:17which is typical for temples dedicated to Isis.
29:20So now, there seemed like there might be temples
29:23at this site dedicated to each of the two gods
29:27that Cleopatra and Mark Antony identified with.
29:31Within the center room of this temple to Isis,
29:34known as the sanctuary,
29:36about 200 gold coins were found,
29:39some bearing Cleopatra's image.
29:43Beneath the room, there was a 16-foot deep shaft
29:46with several underground chambers.
29:48The walls of these chambers
29:50still retained faint traces of pain.
29:52It's possible these cavities were used
29:55for burial or ritual purposes,
29:57and a mass was found,
29:58which some have speculated
29:59could have belonged to Mark Antony.
30:02In 2022, another tunnel was found,
30:0643 feet underground,
30:08chiseled out of solid rock,
30:10and more than three-quarters of a mile long,
30:14along with statues, coins, and other artifacts.
30:17And in 2024, the same archaeologist found a bust
30:20she believes depicts Cleopatra,
30:23as well as coins that definitely do.
30:27But through all this,
30:29no concrete evidence tied to Cleopatra's burial
30:33has been found at the site.
30:35And that magnificent, long tunnel?
30:38An identical one was found in Greece,
30:41on the island of Samos.
30:43That one was an aqueduct.
30:47And there's no proof that the one in Egypt
30:50ever carried anything but water, either.
30:54A hunch had led archaeologists
30:55to search for Cleopatra at Taposiris Magna.
30:59Following the historical record
31:01and geological history, instead,
31:03led to a more obvious location with a twist.
31:06Cleopatra's palace was in her beloved Alexandria.
31:12She had built her mausoleum there.
31:14She had died there.
31:15So it made sense she would be buried there.
31:19With its library and its famous lighthouse,
31:22Alexandria was the largest,
31:24most sophisticated city in the world.
31:28Today, much of ancient Alexandria
31:31is actually 20 feet beneath the surface
31:34of the Mediterranean.
31:36So if Cleopatra is buried there,
31:38she wouldn't be underground.
31:39She'd be underwater.
31:42In 365 CE,
31:44four centuries after Cleopatra's death,
31:47a massive tsunami,
31:4850 to 100 feet high,
31:50blasted through ancient Alexandria
31:52and its palaces.
31:53It killed about 50,000 people
31:55and buried Alexandria
31:56under 80 feet of sediment.
31:59Since the early 90s,
32:01underwater archaeological mapping
32:03has uncovered sections of Alexandria,
32:07piers,
32:08and the remains of palace walls,
32:10granite columns,
32:12even a massive stone sphinx.
32:15However, there's been no sign
32:17of Cleopatra's crypt there so far.
32:20Some who've sought Cleopatra's tomb
32:23believe that even with the use
32:25of the most advanced modern technologies,
32:27her tomb may continue to elude discovery
32:29and possibly with good reason.
32:33Cleopatra's tomb may simply no longer exist.
32:36It may have been found long ago in antiquity,
32:38then looted and destroyed,
32:40or it may have been purposefully dismantled
32:43by the Romans soon after she died.
32:45We know Octavian wanted to obtain
32:48Cleopatra's riches,
32:49and he wouldn't have wanted to risk
32:51the public maintaining too strong a connection
32:53with their dead queen.
32:55The truth is, right now,
32:57we don't know either way.
32:59And just because Cleopatra's tomb
33:01hasn't been found yet
33:03doesn't mean it won't be.
33:06It could absolutely still be out there somewhere,
33:09waiting to be discovered.
33:11It may still lie at Taposiris Magna or under the Mediterranean
33:17among the ruins of ancient Alexandria.
33:20There are also untested theories it may be
33:23at the Temple of Isis in Philae,
33:26or in the Valley of Kings where Tutankhamen was interred.
33:30Or it could be some other place that nobody's thought of yet.
33:35If there is a silver lining to the fruitless search for the tomb,
33:40it's that Taposiris was a neglected site
33:43that everyone knew about but few cared about.
33:46It has now become one of Egypt's most active archaeological sites
33:49with hundreds of significant discoveries already made.
33:53And the same is happening under the Mediterranean
33:55at ancient Alexandria.
33:56So Cleopatra's influence continues to live on.
34:01Queen Cleopatra VII, the new Isis,
34:05who ended her life more than two millennia ago,
34:08continues to impress and expire.
34:10And it's possible that with the discovery of her tomb,
34:14she'll return one day and tell her own story.
34:26South Africa at the dawn of the 20th century
34:32was a land teetering on the edge of monumental change.
34:36The discovery of gold transformed
34:38the once quiet Transvaal Republic
34:40into a battleground of wealth and power,
34:43igniting British imperial ambitions.
34:46At the heart of this upheaval was Paul Kruger,
34:49a leader whose vision for his people
34:51collided with the relentless tide of colonial expansion.
34:55Paul Kruger wasn't just the president
34:58of the South African Republic,
34:59he was the embodiment of Boer independence and resilience.
35:03The Boers, Dutch-speaking settlers from the Cape Colony,
35:06had formed their own self-governing republics
35:09to protect their way of life.
35:11His greatest challenge began in 1886
35:13with the discovery of gold in the Witwatersrand area.
35:17Suddenly, this area wasn't just a remote Boer territory,
35:20it was a treasure trove of unimaginable value,
35:23drawing a flood of British and foreign settlers,
35:26or outlanders, as Kruger disdainfully called them.
35:30To Kruger, these newcomers weren't just immigrants.
35:33They were a direct threat to the Boer way of life and identity.
35:36He steadfastly refused to grant them voting and political rights.
35:39This exclusion angered the mining elite,
35:41who saw Kruger's policies as obstacles
35:43to their economic ambitions,
35:45setting the stage for an inevitable clash.
35:47War broke out in 1899.
35:52It was known as the Great Boer War back then,
35:54but today historians call it the South African War
35:57because many black Africans were caught up in it too.
36:00It was a brutal colonial conflict
36:02that saw the Boers embrace guerrilla warfare,
36:06attacking British outposts,
36:08sabotaging rail lines,
36:09stretching the British troops thin across the vast terrain,
36:13while the British targeted civilians
36:16with scorched earth campaigns and concentration camps.
36:22Amid this chaos, Kruger faced a pivotal decision,
36:25how to safeguard the Republic's wealth.
36:28So he and his advisors devised a plan.
36:31Kruger fled South Africa with over 2 million pounds in gold,
36:34worth over $500 million today.
36:37But somewhere along the line,
36:39the gold vanished,
36:40creating one of history's most enduring enigmas,
36:43So what happened to the Kruger millions?
36:46On June 4th, 1900,
36:49Kruger orchestrated a daring plan.
36:52Gold coins, bullion, and unprocessed gold
36:55were removed from the South African mint
36:57and the National Bank,
36:58then packed into wooden crates
37:00and transported on wagons
37:02towards the Delagoa Bay Railway.
37:04By noon, the precious cargo reached Pretoria Station,
37:08where a special train awaited,
37:10shrouded in secrecy
37:11and protected by armed guards.
37:15Kruger's plan was audacious.
37:17To transport the Republic's wealth to Mozambique,
37:20possibly to finance the war effort from abroad,
37:22or to solidify the nation's future after the conflict.
37:25For Kruger, this wasn't simply wealth.
37:27It was the Republic's lifeline in wartime.
37:29Somewhere along the way,
37:33some of the Kruger millions seem to have disappeared.
37:36When British forces took Pretoria,
37:39they found the vaults empty and Kruger gone.
37:42The difference between those two numbers
37:44has sparked speculation, myths, and legends
37:48that have fascinated people for more than a century now.
37:52Amidst these tales,
37:56one possibility echoes more persistently than the rest,
37:59the belief that the Kruger millions
38:01never left the land where they were foraged
38:03and may lie hidden within South Africa's vast
38:06and rugged landscape.
38:08The idea that Kruger hid the gold within South Africa
38:12is plausible.
38:14Anticipating that the British might intercept the treasure
38:16before it reached Mozambique,
38:18Kruger could have had it ordered to be concealed
38:20along the escape route.
38:22The train passed through secluded areas
38:24like Makadadorp,
38:26the Blyde River Canyon,
38:27the Sudwala Caves,
38:28and Waterval Ondar,
38:30ideal locations for hiding a fortune.
38:32Waterval Ondar wasn't just an ideal hiding place.
38:37It became the nerve center
38:39for Kruger's government in exile.
38:42Daily trains connected the site with the Makadadorp,
38:44the last town in Boer Territory,
38:47allowing crucial war strategy meetings
38:49as the British closed in.
38:52With tunnels and rail links running towards Mozambique,
38:55it was a location well suited for concealing a fortune.
38:59Plus, the security of the area
39:01meant his most trusted advisors had easy access.
39:05You have to wonder if Kruger's men
39:06may have hidden the treasure there
39:08or if this is just another layer of misdirection.
39:12In 1900, a Boer officer named Fritz Duquesne,
39:16known for his cunning and deep-seated hatred for the British,
39:19is said to have been entrusted with the gold.
39:22There's lots of reason not to believe Duquesne.
39:26He was a known con artist,
39:28later became a Nazi spy,
39:29and often rewrote his own history.
39:32But some stories claim
39:33he led a convoy of wagons filled with gold,
39:37and that along the way,
39:38his men tried to kill him and steal the treasure.
39:43Duquesne caught on to their plan
39:44and managed to foil the assassination attempt.
39:47It's alleged that he later ordered his loyal servants
39:50to bury the gold in a secret location,
39:52possibly near the town of Ermelo.
39:55He was captured by the British shortly after and exiled,
39:58and the treasure's location remained a mystery.
40:01If the story's true,
40:02Duquesne took the details to his grave.
40:06Decades later, in 2001,
40:09South Africa found itself gripped by gold fever once again,
40:12when Athol Stark,
40:14a successful businessman from Ermelo,
40:17became entangled in the legend.
40:20The Zulu family approached Stark with a proposition.
40:23They had found 4,000 Kruger ponds,
40:26which are gold coins bearing Paul Kruger's likeness,
40:28and needed his help to sell them.
40:31After verifying their authenticity,
40:33Stark became convinced
40:34that the Kruger millions were real
40:36and possibly hidden near his hometown.
40:40As word spread,
40:42treasure hunters flocked to Ermelo,
40:44believing that the coins
40:44could be part of Duquesne's hidden treasure.
40:47The discovery of a buried statue
40:48and multiple caches of coins in the area
40:50added fuel to the fire.
40:52And for a moment,
40:53it seemed like the mystery might finally be solved.
40:57But despite extensive searches,
40:59no evidence of the full Kruger millions was found.
41:03The coins that were discovered
41:04were isolated stashes,
41:06perhaps buried by Boer farmers during the war
41:08to protect their savings.
41:11Without evidence of a vast singular horde,
41:14perhaps the Kruger millions weren't hidden at all.
41:17And the true fate of the gold
41:19could reveal a different story
41:21about the Boer's struggle.
41:23It's possible Kruger intended to use the gold
41:26in a desperate bid
41:27to sustain the Republic's fight against the British.
41:30As conventional warfare became untenable,
41:33the Boers needed resources
41:34to continue their guerrilla tactics.
41:37The gold could have been crucial in paying soldiers,
41:40securing ammunition,
41:41and buying essential supplies.
41:43Evidence suggests that significant amounts of gold
41:46were transported to Lorenzo Marx in Mozambique.
41:50There, it was exchanged for provisions,
41:52everything from ammunition
41:53to 44,000 bags of flour.
41:56While this certainly supports the idea
41:58that some of the money was sent in efforts to fund the war,
42:01we still don't have records
42:03that account for all the missing gold.
42:05So if the treasure wasn't entirely consumed
42:08by the war effort or lost amid the chaos,
42:10could its fate lie in Kruger's most daring maneuver of all?
42:14Faced with dwindling options,
42:18Kruger may have devised a bold and final strategy
42:21for the Republic's wealth,
42:23an audacious move that would carry the Kruger millions
42:25far beyond South African shores.
42:29It's possible the Kruger millions
42:31were smuggled out of Africa
42:32and taken to Europe by Kruger himself,
42:34then hidden within international banking systems.
42:37After the fall of Pretoria,
42:39Kruger fled to Mozambique
42:40and secured passage aboard the Dutch warship,
42:42HNLMS Gelderland.
42:44Perhaps Kruger took a substantial portion
42:46of the treasure with him,
42:47intending to use it to rally international support
42:49for the Boer cause.
42:51Kruger spent his final years in the Netherlands,
42:54and his relationships there
42:56could have helped him get the gold into Europe.
42:59There even seemed to be records of deposits
43:01in Dutch and Swiss banks.
43:04The recent discovery of over 900 Kruger coins
43:08found in a Swiss vault,
43:09adds credence to this theory,
43:11suggesting that some of the treasure
43:13was smuggled abroad.
43:16These coins, minted during Kruger's presidency
43:18and preserved for over a century,
43:21offer a tantalizing piece of the puzzle.
43:24While it indicates that at least a fraction
43:26of the Kruger millions made it to Europe,
43:28the quantity found is small
43:30compared to the supposed total value of the treasure.
43:33Kruger's lifestyle in exile was modest,
43:36and upon his death in 1904,
43:38there were no signs of vast wealth.
43:40The gaps in documentation
43:41and the secretive nature of international banking
43:44at the time make it difficult to verify this theory.
43:48For all we know,
43:50Kruger's millions might still be stashed away
43:52in Swiss vaults,
43:54waiting to fund another Boer resistance
43:56that never happened.
43:57Over a century has passed,
44:01yet the enigma of the Kruger millions
44:02continues to captivate historians
44:05and treasure hunters worldwide.
44:08The legend isn't just a tale of lost gold.
44:10It's a story that captures a nation's struggle,
44:13the tangled legacy of colonialism,
44:15and the irresistible pull of a mystery
44:17that refuses to be solved.
44:18Whether the tale of lost gold is true or not,
44:24the story is a valuable reminder
44:27of a pivotal moment in South African history,
44:30a brutal war that left tens of thousands dead
44:34and set the scene for apartheid.
44:36The mystery of Kruger's millions endures,
44:40a timeless relic of colonial ambition and resistance,
44:44caught between history and legend,
44:46a haunting symbol of a people's struggle.
44:49It's a reminder that history is full of secrets
44:52waiting to be revealed.
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