- 7 hours ago
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00This week, join me on a massive treasure hunt.
00:04I'm chasing clues across three continents,
00:07trying to solve one of the Bible's biggest mysteries.
00:10What happened to three of the Old Testament's
00:12most precious treasures?
00:15The gold and silver artifacts that God told Moses to create
00:19for Jerusalem's great temple.
00:23For almost 2,000 years, most have believed they were lost.
00:27Casualties of the Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire.
00:31But new evidence indicates they may have survived,
00:34even to the present day.
00:37We're digging for the truth and going to extremes to do it.
00:53I've been searching for some of the most precious treasures on Earth.
00:57The gold menorah, the jeweled table of the Divine Presence,
01:01and the silver trumpets of truth.
01:04They were central objects of worship in Jerusalem's second temple,
01:09created in direct response to God's commandments to Moses.
01:14But in 70 AD, during the great Jewish revolt,
01:18the Romans stole these treasures.
01:20Like the Ark of the Covenant, most believed they were lost.
01:24But not archaeologist Dr. Sean Kingsley.
01:28He's convinced they still exist,
01:30and he's taking me on a treasure hunt to find them.
01:35Our journey began in the Holy Land.
01:38There, evidence of these ancient treasures still abounds.
01:42Look at that.
01:43On the walls of an underground Jewish cemetery.
01:46And on coins that circulated in Jerusalem at the time of the Jewish revolt.
01:51Yeah, the silver trumpets of truth.
01:53I learned how the Romans looted the temple treasure,
01:56and how it was transported from Jerusalem to the ancient port of Caesarea.
02:00And finally, on to Rome.
02:05Traveling from Israel, I've traced God's gold to Rome, Italy.
02:08Some people believe that the holy relics from Jerusalem's second temple are here,
02:13hidden somewhere within this city.
02:14Hi, I'm Hunter Ellis.
02:16Working with archaeologist and author Sean Kingsley,
02:18we continue our search for the sacred temple treasure.
02:22According to Sean, author of the new book, God's Gold,
02:25the three sacred treasures would bring a fortune at the auction block.
02:30But their religious importance is beyond value,
02:33for Jews and Christians.
02:36Which brings me to the Vatican, the ancient center of Catholicism.
02:42This place is full of religious treasures.
02:45Many believe the Jews' holy relics are among them.
02:49I'm on my way to see Sean,
02:51whose 15-year quest for God's gold started in this very spot.
02:56Good to see you again.
02:57Are you ready to carry on tracking down the mother of all treasures?
03:00I am ready, and for some reason,
03:01it doesn't surprise me that we're here in the Vatican
03:04because of the fact we're looking for some of the most precious religious artifacts in history.
03:08Well, there's a huge conspiracy theory swirling around the Vatican.
03:11It looks very peaceful here above,
03:12but a lot of people are convinced that there's strange mysteries underground.
03:16Tales of God's gold,
03:17hidden in a vault deep in the Vatican,
03:19have circulated for centuries.
03:21As recently as the late 90s,
03:23the Israeli government asked permission to search there for the holy treasure
03:27and was denied.
03:30Sean has researched all the stories.
03:32He says they trace back to a few sentences
03:34written by a Spanish rabbi during the 12th century
03:37who claimed he saw the treasures in a cave beneath the Vatican.
03:41Fortunately, the good rabbi was a bit of an innocent abroad.
03:44It's hearsay.
03:44He didn't physically see this evidence with his own eyes.
03:46But you feel, based on all your research,
03:49that God's gold is more than likely not here?
03:53The treasure is in the Vatican.
03:54I would eat the Pope's hat.
03:57So if it's not here,
03:58because I don't want you to eat the Pope's hat, where is it?
04:00Well, I think I've got clear-cut historical evidence
04:02that shows you exactly where it was for hundreds of years.
04:05If you're ready for a hike?
04:06Show me the way.
04:06Let's go.
04:10Gold, looted from the second temple in Jerusalem,
04:14gave the emperor Vespasian the money to rebuild Rome
04:17after a devastating fire.
04:19The stolen offerings from the Jewish temple
04:22built the world's greatest pagan amphitheater,
04:26the Colosseum.
04:28But for Vespasian, the ultimate symbol he built
04:31was the Temple of Peace.
04:35This is the Temple of Peace.
04:36The finest museum of the ancient world.
04:38And it's just being excavated.
04:40New finds turning up by the hour.
04:42Let's go and have a look at some of them, okay?
04:44Wow, look at all these trays of fire.
04:46Until recently, this temple was one of Rome's lost treasures.
04:50Its only visible remnant was a wall
04:52that had become part of the Christian church.
04:55But ancient accounts tell us
04:57that it was built around a beautiful public garden.
05:00Arcades on three sides led to the Holy of Holies,
05:04where Sean says the Jews' sacred relics
05:06were a central attraction.
05:08The Temple of Peace was a museum,
05:11showing off the greatest art and religious objects
05:14looted by Roman legions in their victories
05:16around the world.
05:19The message was clear.
05:21In Rome, peace came from the power of the empire.
05:24This is the actual original floor of the Temple of Peace.
05:27Wow, now this is amazing.
05:29This shows that Vespasian had successfully
05:32kick-started the economy of Rome.
05:33And I mean, this column looks massive, right?
05:36Excavations have now revealed
05:38some of the wonders of the temple,
05:39once called the most beautiful building in Rome.
05:42Oh my God, look at this marble over here.
05:45I mean, there's such detail.
05:46Everything is designed here for perfect harmony.
05:48This is imperial purple.
05:50Yeah, that's beautiful.
05:51Brought all the way from our Egyptian desert.
05:53This must have been something back in the day
05:55when this was all completed.
05:57Absolutely.
05:57I mean, it's a bit sort of dried up today,
05:59but, you know, if you spray some water on it,
06:01actually, it's like a rainbow.
06:02All the colors will come out.
06:09Look at those colors that come out right there, huh?
06:14Sean says the different colors of marble
06:16were brought to Rome from all over the empire.
06:18It was a showcase of riches.
06:23That looks great.
06:24Beautiful.
06:25So we have all of this incredible marble,
06:27but how do we know the treasure was here?
06:30How do we know that those three items
06:32were specifically in this place?
06:34Well, our good friend Josephus, fortunately,
06:36tells us at the end of the triumph of AD 71,
06:40within four years, this edifice was up and running.
06:43And within 50 feet of where we're standing,
06:46God's gold was actually stored.
06:49Josephus was a first century Jewish historian
06:52and general who wrote firsthand
06:54about the great Jewish revolt.
06:55He defected and came to Rome with Vespasian
06:58and recorded where the Jewish treasures came to rest.
07:02Here he laid up the vessels of gold from the temple
07:05of the Jews, on which he prided himself.
07:09So he used his greatest museum to display
07:12his greatest holy relics.
07:13Yeah, the candelabrum and the table of divine presence
07:16and the silver trumps of truth were the centerpiece
07:18of his museum.
07:19Wow, I mean, this is spectacular.
07:20Sean explains that as Christianity spread,
07:23the relics became more valuable to the Romans.
07:27God's gold was no longer a trophy,
07:29but a direct link to the Old Testament.
07:32And after 350 years, someone else wanted the treasure.
07:36But by the fifth century, Rome had powerful enemies,
07:39and another army was knocking on the gates of the eternal city.
07:41And they wanted a piece of the pie as well.
07:43They wanted God's gold and any other treasures
07:45they could get their hands on.
07:46But that will take us on another forensic trail.
07:48Show me the way.
07:49Let's go.
07:50So the Temple of Peace was not the final resting place
07:54for God's gold.
07:55We're back on the hunt, and it takes us
07:57to the main thoroughfare of ancient Rome, the River Tiber.
08:02Well, all things important in our story
08:04come through and depart from here.
08:06This is where Titus arrived with the temple treasure in AD 71.
08:10And ironically, it's the same place
08:12where another conquering army was going
08:14to come and enter the story.
08:16The Vandals were a warlike tribe who
08:19started east of what is now Germany,
08:21and fought their way southwest in one of the most remarkable
08:24immigrations in history.
08:26Tens of thousands moved from the cold of Upper Europe
08:29to conquer the rich Roman province of North Africa.
08:33Centered in Carthage, the Vandals were soon ready
08:35to attack the capital of the once proud Roman Empire.
08:39So it's a fact that in 455 AD, the Vandals storm into Rome.
08:43What was it like?
08:44The Geyseric, king of the Vandals,
08:46he lands his troops here by sea.
08:47They stream out over the river banks.
08:49They take the bridges.
08:50They throw firebrands into the churches.
08:53Their timbers go up in smoke.
08:55And then over 14 days and nights,
08:57they plunder the eternal city.
08:59Anything that's of any value, they take
09:01and they throw into their merchant vessels.
09:04Is God's gold part of their spoils?
09:08Well, this is the compelling argument that I'm making.
09:10Well, we got Theopathy and Spencer.
09:11Sean has researched the ancient chronicles extensively.
09:14They are clear that Geyseric stole the relics
09:17of the Second Temple and loaded them on his ships.
09:20Where does God's gold go?
09:22It went rather like this on a slow boat down the river Tiber
09:26to North Africa.
09:27So now we're getting closer to God's gold.
09:30We know it left Rome.
09:32As we move forward in time, my hunt for the holy treasure
09:35leads me to another continent, Africa.
09:42I've been searching for God's gold,
09:45holy relics stolen by the Romans from Jerusalem in 70 AD.
09:50They're among the world's most priceless treasures.
09:55I've discovered they came by ship to the ancient city of Carthage
09:58in what is now modern-day Tunisia.
10:03But knowing the vandal's reputation,
10:05I'm worried that I might be on a wild goose chase that ends here.
10:09So it seems as though the treasure was taken out of Rome
10:12by the vandals and brought here to North Africa.
10:14But when you hear the name vandal, you think of a cutthroat barbarian
10:18who has absolutely no respect for personal property.
10:21As a matter of fact, it's where we get the term vandalism from.
10:25The vandals were famous for pillaging
10:27and leaving destruction in their wake.
10:30Wouldn't they have melted down the sacred relics for the gold and silver?
10:35But if God's gold still exists, the logical place to start looking
10:40is where Sean thinks the treasure was taken next,
10:44the place where Geyseric the vandal king returned after his conquest of Rome.
10:50So you think this is where God's gold may have arrived in North Africa?
10:53I do. Right here, Carthage was the most important commercial port in the empire.
10:57Look at its groundbreaking circular design.
11:00And imagine here, 190 merchant vessels down in the sea, pulled up in dry dots.
11:06It may not look like much,
11:08but we're walking on the perfectly circular central island of the port
11:12that was a wonder of the ancient world.
11:17After conquering Carthage,
11:18the vandals presided over this flourishing port for over 80 years.
11:24Wow, what's this?
11:25This is one of dozens of dry docks built by the Romans
11:28for when their ships were busted.
11:30They'd pull them up here and repair the hulls.
11:32If the vandals could administer the port of Carthage,
11:35they were more sophisticated than I thought.
11:38All right, so over here I've pulled up some pottery and...
11:40Sean is an expert on Mediterranean trade.
11:43With just a few pot shards,
11:44he can piece together the details of ancient commerce.
11:47This is a local olive jar.
11:50And we know in antiquity,
11:52the Mediterranean world needed 3 million tons of this stuff every year.
11:56It was to them what crude oil is to us today.
11:59And Tunisia was the El Dorado of the olive world.
12:04To prove that our hunt makes sense,
12:06Sean shows me something else the vandals preserved.
12:09Well, these are the taps of the city.
12:11This gave 200,000 people drinking water, fed the bathhouses.
12:16Seventeen of these enormous cisterns.
12:19These cisterns were built by the Romans and supplied the city's water.
12:23Would the vandals have destroyed or damaged us when they came here?
12:27Well, they have got a bad reputation, but, you know, what's the point?
12:30They needed to keep the taps of the city open.
12:32Now, the vandals were no fools.
12:34They knew that Rome was the heartbeat of the empire,
12:37but also Carthage was the commercial center.
12:40Control this city, and you had your hands around the neck of the golden goose.
12:44So they kind of enjoyed the good life.
12:47They were taking advantage of the system.
12:48Sure. The vandals came here.
12:50They took possession of 12 million olive trees.
12:53Therefore, they could feed 3 million citizens around the Med.
12:57The vandals, according to Sean,
13:00not only adopted the Roman infrastructure, they maintained it.
13:05But did they also preserve God's gold?
13:10I'm heading three hours southwest to the ancient town of Mokhtar
13:13to find out more about these mysterious vandals.
13:19I'm on my way to meet Dr. Susan Stevens,
13:22a classical scholar and expert on the vandals.
13:26So what was this place?
13:27This was the Roman Forum, which had public buildings and the market.
13:31Mokhtar was a Roman city on the frontier of its empire in North Africa.
13:35Not something you'd expect to see here in the middle of Tunisia.
13:38This is a city street, of course, with the drain on it.
13:40With this great drain.
13:41Susan tells me the vandals seized the city in 435 A.D.,
13:45only 20 years before they brought God's gold back from Rome.
13:49Virtually every building that we see in Mokhtar
13:52was used during the fifth century by the vandals.
13:55So how many of these cities did we see throughout North Africa?
13:58Our sources tell us that there are 600 cities.
14:00So it's a really good indication of how wealthy the area was,
14:04how productive it was.
14:05And this is something, of course, the vandals were very interested in.
14:08So the vandals didn't dismantle this wealthy empire.
14:11In fact, they adopted the Roman lifestyle with enthusiasm,
14:15including their belief in Christianity.
14:17Look at this bathhouse. This is pretty impressive.
14:20Isn't it? This is the freaking art.
14:21But the vandal newcomers had some strong ideas of their own.
14:24They were Christians, but they were Christians of a different kind
14:27than the ones who were actually resident here.
14:30And they persecuted the orthodox Christians from time to time.
14:34Think about the vandals.
14:36The vandals took their Christianity very seriously.
14:40There's hard evidence of their faith right here.
14:43This is the Basilica of Hildegans.
14:45This is a Christian church.
14:46It is.
14:47And it's one of only a handful of structures in North Africa
14:50that the vandals built themselves.
14:53It's intriguing.
14:55But even if the vandals were devout Christians,
14:57why would they preserve a Jewish treasure like God's gold?
15:01What would they have done with it?
15:02Could they have possibly destroyed it?
15:04Probably not.
15:05For one thing, they were Christians,
15:06and Christians would revere these as relics of the Old Testament.
15:10And secondly, this was a treasure that was taken by conquest by the Romans
15:16and marched in a triumph.
15:18And surely, this would have had great political value
15:21to be in possession of this great treasure.
15:23They had a lot to gain by holding on to it.
15:25Indeed.
15:26Where are the roads?
15:26So Susan is confident that the holy treasures of the Second Temple survived.
15:31But what did the vandals do with them?
15:34And where does the trail lead next?
15:37I rejoined Sean at the highest point in Carthage to find out.
15:41No archaeologist has been able to determine exactly what these ruins were.
15:46But Sean believes this was the palace of the vandal king, Geiseric.
15:51And don't forget, all this would have had beautiful marble and stone over it.
15:54Unfortunately, it's been ripped out and taken to build modern Tunis.
15:58I think they need to redesign their stairway.
16:00Okay, we're in.
16:02Ground floor, vandal palace.
16:04Not bad.
16:05Heck of a view.
16:06But this whole place, I mean, for a palace, it looks really small.
16:10Well, the history books are very clear about this.
16:12To get to the vandal palace, you came up a hill.
16:15You look around you here.
16:17You're on the highest point in Carthage.
16:19And there's the harbor down there where we were.
16:21Here you are, staring down onto the port and keeping an eye on your assets.
16:25That's about money and controlling it.
16:27Bird's eye view.
16:28But why not build it bigger?
16:29Yeah, I see your point.
16:30It is quite slender.
16:31It's 140 feet long and 40 foot wide.
16:34It wasn't supposed to be long.
16:35It was supposed to be tall.
16:37Actually, this structure is about five stories high.
16:39No kidding.
16:40So all above us here would have been the palace.
16:42This was the skyscraper of its age.
16:44What do we have?
16:45According to Sean, the room we're standing in now opened out onto a terrace with beautiful
16:50gardens and fountains.
16:52But the most impressive aspect of the palace was its height.
16:56Five stories high on top of a hill, it could be seen from far out at sea.
17:01And from out at sea, you'd look towards this majestic view, dominating and making a very
17:06powerful statement.
17:08So where's the vault?
17:09Which vault would that be?
17:10The vault that would hold the treasure.
17:12Well, vaults are underground.
17:12But if I'm right, the treasure was up there on the fourth story.
17:16On the fourth story, huh?
17:17That would have been above us then.
17:18But according to Sean, God's gold didn't reside high above Carthage for very long.
17:24A power was rising on the other side of the Mediterranean, the Byzantines.
17:30Their emperor, Justinian, was infuriated by the Vandal persecution of Orthodox Christians.
17:37In 533 AD, Justinian sends an army across the Mediterranean.
17:42Near Carthage, they easily defeat the Vandals.
17:49If Sean's right, God's gold is now in the hands of a new power.
17:53And to hunt down the treasure, I need to travel to where they came from.
17:58Modern day Turkey, the gateway to Asia.
18:07I'm heading into Istanbul, Turkey, once known as Constantinople.
18:12Along with archaeologist Sean Kingsley, I'm searching for God's gold, the sacred treasure
18:18of the Old Testament.
18:23Ancient writings confirmed it was captured in 534 AD and carried in triumph from North
18:30Africa across the Mediterranean to Constantinople.
18:34The crazy thing is that on the right is Asia, on the left is Europe, the Black Sea dead
18:39ahead of the Bosphorus.
18:41Yeah, this place is the biggest natural harbor in the modern and ancient world.
18:45By the 5th century AD, the capital of the declining Roman Empire had moved to Constantinople.
18:52And the city was the center of a flourishing Christian civilization, Byzantium.
19:00Justinian, the greatest emperor of Byzantine history, ruled a kingdom that stretched from
19:04present-day Turkey to Spain.
19:08Just like ancient Constantinople, present-day Istanbul is a crossroads of east and west,
19:14Asia and Europe.
19:16But if we're going to find God's gold, I need to know where the sacred treasure landed 1,500
19:21years ago.
19:23Oddly enough, Sean doesn't start at the modern port, but in the middle of the city.
19:28Have you ever seen a Byzantine port before?
19:30It's been about 1,500 years or so.
19:32Well, you're going to check one out right here in downtown Istanbul.
19:37Wow.
19:38Look at that.
19:39Now that is one heck of a dig right there.
19:41It's unbelievable.
19:42I haven't seen anything on this scale since Howard Carter dug the Valley of the Kings,
19:46quite frankly.
19:48The site was discovered when work began on a rail tunnel connecting Europe and Asia.
19:54Now the tunnel is on hold, while 50 archaeologists and 750 laborers excavate 10 city blocks 24 hours
20:03a day.
20:04We're on the ancient shoreline here.
20:06This is where the warehouses would have been.
20:08Right here.
20:08People speaking in different languages.
20:11Today, the sea has moved away from where it was during the time of the Byzantine Empire.
20:16But this site provides the unmistakable remnants of the old port.
20:20What is this here?
20:20Well, these are the Byzantine docks of Constantinople, 1,500 years old.
20:25From the shoreline, a series of wooden landing stages and wooden jetties 15 feet high came right
20:31out here at right angles into the sea.
20:34And we have four series of these in between which the ships arrived and docked and sent their
20:38merchandise into the busy city.
20:40So across this dock right here, God's gold could have been unloaded or loaded.
20:46It's really possible.
20:47I mean, when the archaeologists dug this, they found the pots and pans.
20:50And between them, gold coins of the emperor Justinian himself.
20:53So we know this dates from the precise time when the temple treasure arrived in Constantinople.
20:59Look, a menorah.
21:01You've got a good imagination.
21:05The site is full of unique finds.
21:07This is cool.
21:08Including 22 ships that sailed in and out of the busy port.
21:12The most ever found in one place from the Byzantine era.
21:15It's just an endless array of pottery.
21:18It's everywhere.
21:19Yeah, it's cleaned down.
21:20Hundreds of pot shards are cleaned and catalogued every day.
21:23Archaeology trivia.
21:24What century?
21:26That's from Cyprus, graffiti ware, 12th century.
21:29And you've got alongside 9th century material.
21:31Is this where they're cleaning it off over here?
21:33If anyone can track God's gold from the evidence excavated from this ancient port, it's Sean.
21:39As a marine archaeologist, he's spent 20 years studying trade around the ancient Mediterranean.
21:45Look at that.
21:46Some of the finds are still intact.
21:48They helped support Sean's case that God's gold journeyed through this port.
21:52These are from Tunisia, 6th century AD.
21:56From the period of the Vandals, huh?
21:58So, we have something from North Africa here.
22:01And one thing's for sure, this jar would have passed through the port of Carthage itself.
22:05It's a really important cooling card to show that the sea lane through which God's gold traveled was still in
22:10use.
22:12Sean is confident that we're on the trail of God's gold.
22:15But I'd like a second opinion.
22:18So I meet up with Bill Rosen, an expert on Byzantine history.
22:21I want to start by asking you, am I on the right path?
22:24Because I've followed Sean Kingsley now through four countries in search of God's gold.
22:29Did it in fact come here to Constantinople?
22:31There's no question about it at all.
22:33It came right out of the sea and up the path you just walked.
22:37It's the first great victory of the Emperor Justinian's reign.
22:39We're talking about tons, literally tons of silver and gold, a parade of captives, and of course the stars of
22:46the show.
22:47The menorah, the table, and the silver trumpets from the Temple of Jerusalem.
22:52And so it could have started right here, walked right through these various streets?
22:56This is the path they took, right?
22:58A mile long, the procession wound up the hill from the port.
23:03Tons of silver and gold, thousands of Byzantines cheering.
23:08A historian of the period, Procopius, confirms God's gold was at the center of it all.
23:14And among these were the treasures of the Jews, brought to Rome after the capture of Jerusalem.
23:21You can almost feel that roar in there, right?
23:23So based on this information, it seems logical to deduce God's gold was here, heading to the treasure's new owner,
23:32Emperor Justinian.
23:34Finally reaching the destination.
23:35We end up at the Hippodrome, built to satisfy Constantinople's passion for chariot races.
23:41So would this have been their final destination right here?
23:43This is it, the Hippodrome, 1,500-year-old chariot racing oval we're standing on right now.
23:51So we're standing on the path of where the horses would race.
23:54Exactly.
23:55You can't see it today, but the Hippodrome was the logical descendant of the Colosseum,
24:01perfect for a society that saw itself as the successor to Rome.
24:06The center of the city's social life, the Hippodrome could hold 80,000 people.
24:10It was the symbol of Constantinople's power and pride, adorned with works of art looted from around the world.
24:17And it was here that Emperor Justinian received God's gold.
24:22This is a display case, and had been for centuries, of trophies won in victories by the Empire's armies.
24:29Over there is what's left of the serpent column from the Oracle of Apollo at Belphi.
24:33Straight ahead is an Egyptian obelisk that was 15 centuries old at the time it was put up, 15 centuries
24:39ago.
24:41So relics and prizes were important to the Byzantines, just as they were to the Romans.
24:47But if God's gold ended up here, there's no trace of it now.
24:52Would Justinian have sought to preserve the treasures of the Jews?
24:55Why not just melt it down?
24:57First, they were a direct link to the glories of imperial Rome.
25:00Second, Justinian wasn't just a Roman emperor.
25:02He was a Christian Roman emperor, an obsessively Christian Roman emperor.
25:06These artifacts were a direct link to the holy city of Jerusalem.
25:10We obviously have a lot of other trophies displayed here.
25:12Is this a logical resting place for God's gold?
25:15If you look around at the statuary that was here and is here today,
25:19you'll notice that it's all pagan.
25:21These artifacts from Jerusalem, they had been pre-Christian,
25:23but they were anything but pagan.
25:25So I need to be looking for a holy site then?
25:27I believe so.
25:30The trail of God's gold is still warm,
25:33but where would Justinian have shown off his new possessions,
25:36the treasures of the Second Temple?
25:40My best guess?
25:41His greatest religious monument, the Hagia Sophia.
25:45So I catch up with Sean there.
25:47This place is absolutely enormous.
25:50Look at that dome up there, 102 feet wide.
25:53This was the crowning glory of the Byzantine emperor.
25:55This would be the emperor Justinian's flagship enterprise.
25:58And a feat of amazing engineering.
26:01Actually, he broke all the rule books
26:03by building 40 arch windows around the church here,
26:06which distributed the weight of the dome evenly
26:08and made the structure much more safe.
26:11And at the same time, created a sense of mystical light
26:14that flooded within the church.
26:16Justinian's goal was to outdo the beauty of Solomon's Temple
26:20in Jerusalem, the first resting place of God's gold.
26:27A mosaic image shows him holding the church he loves so much.
26:33Justinian wanted to show that it was even greater than King Solomon.
26:37And indeed, when Justinian built this place,
26:39he said, Solomon, I have vanquished thee.
26:41So by building this, he has basically created a place
26:45to store the holiest relics ever known,
26:47which would include God's gold if he had it.
26:49Well, you might think so.
26:51I mean, we know that this place was stuffed full of relics.
26:53You had the Shroud of Jesus, fragments of the cross, saints' bones.
26:57But there's one small problem.
27:00I'm assuming it has to do with God's gold.
27:02Absolutely.
27:02When God's gold came to town in 534,
27:05this place was a part of ruins.
27:06This was?
27:07Yeah.
27:07It had been burnt down.
27:08So this was not even here when God's gold arrived in Constantinople.
27:14Now you're getting the point.
27:16So if not here, where?
27:19According to Sean, Justinian had the perfect location,
27:23reflecting his obsession with Solomon,
27:25the church of St. Polyuctos.
27:27I'll be honest.
27:28This is not the place I thought we would end up on the trail of God's gold.
27:32Well, the secret of St. Polyuctos is not what you can see,
27:35but is what is actually invisible to the naked eye.
27:37And what is that?
27:39Well, the formula of this church was laid out with a unique measurement
27:43which is unknown from the thousands of other churches from late antiquity.
27:47This measures precisely 100 by 100 royal biblical cubits.
27:52So why is that significant, though?
27:54Well, this is the unit of measurement that was used by King Solomon
27:57in his temple of Jerusalem in the 10th century BC.
27:59So the building that stood here had the exact same footprint as Solomon's Temple.
28:05It was a precise replica mathematically.
28:07And right there is where God's gold ended up in Constantinople.
28:12Sean tells me this inner chamber has the same dimensions as the Holy of Holies in Solomon's Temple.
28:18Was this a site that was worthy of holding God's gold?
28:22Oh, and how? I mean, this may look like a pile of ruins now,
28:26but originally it was the flashiest building in Christendom.
28:29It was more majestic than the Hagia Sophia itself.
28:33Ten thousand pieces of marble were interlaced with precious stones.
28:39St. Polyuctos was a Baroque fantasy with elaborate carvings and a solid gold ceiling.
28:451,500 years ago, it was the most beautiful and splendid church in Constantinople.
28:52St. Polyuctos might have been the perfect resting place for God's gold,
28:55but if it was here, did it stay here?
28:58That depended on the Emperor Justinian,
29:00and what he decided determines the next stage of our journey.
29:09The massive walls that protected Constantinople during the Byzantine Empires
29:14still stand, a testament to the power of a city that had become the center of the Mediterranean world.
29:21My search for God's gold, the precious relics of Jerusalem's Second Temple,
29:25has taken me on a treasure hunt from Israel to Rome and finally to North Africa.
29:31But the trail seems to end here with the great Byzantine Emperor Justinian.
29:35What did he do with the treasure?
29:37I meet up again with Justinian's biographer, Bill Rosen.
29:41He promises a valuable clue to the fate of God's gold.
29:45Procopius tells us that the Jewish citizens of Constantinople prevailed upon Justinian,
29:50threatening him with a curse if he didn't send the artifacts back to Jerusalem,
29:55reminding him that the last empires and kingdoms that had possession of them had fallen.
30:02Procopius describes Justinian's reaction.
30:05The Emperor became afraid and quickly sent everything to the sanctuaries of the Christians in Jerusalem.
30:12But why would a leader of an empire, who risks so much to get the treasure in the first place,
30:18just throw it away or send it back because of hearsay?
30:21He wouldn't.
30:21It had to be something as large, an order of magnitude,
30:25as the investment he'd made to acquire and celebrate the acquisition of these treasures in the first place.
30:29So what would this event be then?
30:31The world's first pandemic, an attack of bubonic plague, hit Constantinople in the year 542.
30:37And this was the disease that was brought over by fleas on rats, correct?
30:42Fleas on rats on ships.
30:43Perhaps, sometimes I wonder, the same ships that brought the treasure here from Carthage in the first place.
30:50But just how bad was the plague in Constantinople?
30:54That's why Bill brought me here.
30:55By June of 542, Constantinople was a window on the hill.
31:01Every day, 5,000, 6,000, sometimes 10,000 people fell dead.
31:06Every day?
31:07Every day.
31:08Wow.
31:08It was so bad, the city very quickly ran out of both grave sites and grave diggers until one of
31:14Justinian's ministers had the idea of taking towers, just like that one, just like the one we're standing on,
31:21taking the tops off of them and using the empty space underneath to store dead bodies.
31:27That is unimaginable.
31:29So when you take that event and you couple it with the warnings that Pacopius writes about, do you think
31:36Justinian could have sent the treasure back to the Holy Land to rid himself of the curse?
31:39I think it's plausible.
31:41In fact, I think it may be the most plausible explanation we have.
31:45So Bill just told me that towers like this were once filled with tens of thousands of bodies.
31:51One thing seems for certain.
31:52It seems like the treasure has now moved from Constantinople back to the Holy Land.
31:59So it looks like Justinian believed the relics of the Second Temple were cursed, validating Sean's research.
32:07Once again, we're tracking a treasure on the moon.
32:13I've come full circle back to Israel, where the sacred temple treasure originally disappeared almost 2,000 years ago.
32:20But if Sean Kingsley's theory is correct, God's gold traveled all around the Mediterranean only to return here to its
32:27home, the holy city of Jerusalem.
32:30And Sean thinks that it ended up sheltered in a Christian church.
32:34But of the hundreds of churches in 6th century Jerusalem, which one would Justinian have picked?
32:41To help us narrow our search, Sean has a copy of an ancient map.
32:45The holy city.
32:46This is it, Jerusalem, the place where Procopius writes, Justinian had God's gold returned to.
32:52The sanctuary of the Christians, somewhere in this place.
32:55We have a close up here.
32:57Now the monks have only shown the most important features of the city.
33:00You can see the city wall here, profiled in white.
33:03Right.
33:04And bang in the middle, you've got the Cardo, the main thoroughfare, running from one end of the city to
33:09the other.
33:09Right.
33:10But what we're looking for is a really important ecclesiastical structure.
33:14Any ideas? What grabs your attention there?
33:17Well, I mean, other than this main thoroughfare right here, the one thing that really seems to jump out at
33:21me is this structure right here.
33:23It seems to be the biggest.
33:25Absolutely.
33:25It's monumental.
33:27I mean, inscriptions tell us that this is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
33:31Sean thinks this is the place where Justinian sent God's gold.
33:36Wow.
33:36One of the holiest sites on earth, huh?
33:39You smell all that incense?
33:40Yeah.
33:40It's like going back to the 4th century AD.
33:43In the time of Justinian, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was considered Christianity's holiest shrine.
33:48Rich, opulent, high Byzantine architecture.
33:52It was believed to have been built on the hill of Calvary, where Christ was crucified.
33:58So where are you taking me now?
33:59This area where all the tourists go, I want to take you to a special place.
34:03This church has always been a treasure trove of holy artifacts.
34:08This place is amazing. It just keeps going down. I mean, you don't see half of this above ground.
34:13Sean takes me back in time to the oldest part of the church where he believes the Jewish relics were
34:20kept.
34:22Now, here's what I want to know.
34:23How do you take the holiest relics from Christianity and the holiest relics from Judaism and put them all under
34:29one roof?
34:29Right. It sounds strange. This is all about divine power.
34:32You control the past. You control the present.
34:35And what better than the table of the divine presence, the golden cantaloupe and the silver trumpets of truth?
34:40So if God's gold were here, where would it be?
34:43Well, I don't think they would have put them on public display.
34:45That would have been a great humiliation and provocation for the Jews in the city here.
34:49So I think they would have put them in a locked chamber.
34:51So this would be the logical resting place for the treasure?
34:54Within 50 feet of where we're standing.
34:57Sean believes the holy relics would have been hidden in an underground vault beneath this very room.
35:02This place has lots of hidden chambers.
35:04But he has yet another twist.
35:07The sacred treasure of the Jews was soon on the move again.
35:12And Sean is positive he knows where it went.
35:15We go to the year 614.
35:18The Sasanian Persians from Iran have swept down the Galilee to this area exactly the same as the Romans did
35:242,000 years ago.
35:25And they're in search of treasure.
35:28Once again, Jerusalem is in chaos.
35:31Christians are being massacred and priests tortured as the Persians loot the treasures of the city.
35:38But according to Sean, Christian monks spirited God's gold away to safety.
35:46So where did it go?
35:48Well, we have to go to another time in another place.
35:50Actually, all the way back to the birthplace of Jesus Christ himself, Bethlehem.
35:55Sounds like we're off to Bethlehem then.
35:56Got to go into the West Bank.
35:58Now we have another problem.
36:00The West Bank is torn by conflict.
36:03To continue our search for God's gold is not only difficult, it may be dangerous.
36:09After traveling thousands of miles, I really feel that if you were superstitious, you'd have a pretty compelling argument to
36:15say the treasures of the Second Temple were cursed.
36:18Think about it.
36:19Both Rome and Carthage had it.
36:21And within a couple hundred years, they were both conquered.
36:24After a terrible plague devastated Constantinople, Justinian sent it back to the Christians, who were then massacred.
36:31If there is a curse on God's gold, I hope it's worn off.
36:35Because we're about to go where Sean thinks the treasure is concealed.
36:39So what can we expect today headed into the West Bank?
36:42That's the thing. We don't know what to expect.
36:44This is a battleground now between Hamas and Fatah.
36:46And oddly, it replicates exactly the interfactional fighting 2,000 years ago in the first Jewish rebel.
36:52I've got to be a little honest. I've been in a lot of places and been in war zones, but
36:57I'm definitely feeling it today.
36:59You know, the heart's a little fluttery, the air's tense.
37:03Let's hope for the best and hit the road. What do you say?
37:05Yep.
37:12Our plan is to cross the Israeli border, pass through Bethlehem, and head east to the 1,500-year-old
37:19monastery of St. Theodosius.
37:24So what links the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to the monastery where we're heading right now?
37:28What makes you think it ended up here?
37:30Well, there's a very special man who's involved in the story here who's a visionary and one of the great
37:35forgotten people of history.
37:37A chap called Modestus, who was actually superior of the monastery of St. Theodosius where I'm taking you.
37:43In the midst of the chaos after the Persians stormed the city, Modestus became the head of the church in
37:49Jerusalem.
37:51He would have been the only one who knew where God's gold was concealed.
37:56My working hypothesis is that the Modestus took the treasure on a camel, put some canvas on it, and off
38:03on his way.
38:04If Sean's right, we're following the route Modestus took as he spirited the holy relics out of Jerusalem to his
38:11chosen hiding place.
38:12And Sean is sure they're still there, waiting to be found.
38:16On the trail of the gold.
38:18Yeah, this is the way the Modestus went.
38:24I'm finally getting close to the end of my search for God's gold, the lost relics of the Jews, a
38:31treasure of immeasurable worth.
38:33My quest has taken me across three continents and back to the Holy Land where I began.
38:39Now I'm following the likely path used to transport the treasure to a monastery in Palestine in the 7th century
38:45AD.
38:47Throughout history, this area has been wracked by violent religious and political conflict, even to this day.
38:55We're going to the wild west of the east here.
38:57That's the gate right here?
38:58Yeah, you got the security fence down there.
39:01Archaeologist Sean Kingsley is sure God's gold is less than an hour across the Israeli border.
39:07So, what's the procedure here?
39:09Well, this is all much more organized than when I came here last.
39:11The fence wasn't finished.
39:13But this is going to be easier.
39:14So, who is she?
39:17She's just a young kid in the Israeli army, and she's charged with making sure there's no gun running, drug
39:22running, and, you know.
39:24I mean, this is the front lines on a day-to-day basis.
39:26Well, usually, they get you out of the car, and they use mirrors and look underneath to make sure you
39:31don't have any bombs or contraband stuck to the bottom of the car.
39:36Looks as if we're having it quite easy here, and we're through.
39:39Welcome to the West Bank, people.
39:43Sean has been to this mysterious monastery before and was denied entrance.
39:51We've received written permission to visit from the Patriarch, the head of the Greek Orthodox Church in the Holy Land.
39:58This is going to be pretty exciting for you, then.
40:00Yeah, it is. I'm quite nervous, actually.
40:02I'm wondering how the landscape has changed, whether the monks will be more receptive towards us.
40:08Monks, it seems, are absolutely petrified of political developments in this area.
40:12So, uh, I never got inside the monastery itself.
40:15Well, we'll have better luck this time.
40:19Sean's theory is that Christian monks moved the relics out of Jerusalem to this isolated monastery for safekeeping.
40:25And the secret has remained here ever since.
40:30There it is, just around the corner.
40:32There we go. Is that it?
40:33Yeah.
40:34We reach our destination, the monastery of St. Theodosius.
40:38The beginning of the end for the story of God's gold.
40:41Since the fifth century AD, over 1,500 years, it's been a Christian sanctuary in the midst of religious conflict.
40:48People drive crazy around here.
40:48Well, west of the east.
40:49Not a typical monastery front door, is it?
40:52No, this is worrying. It's not very welcoming at all.
40:56It's pretty thick, huh? It looks almost bulletproof behind there.
40:59How do you knock on the front door of a Greek Orthodox monastery in the West Bank?
41:04I'm not used to doing this.
41:05Voila.
41:06Ah.
41:07Help yourself.
41:08You think that's it?
41:09I don't think it's Byzantine, but it's the best we're going to do.
41:11I hope I don't get electrocuted.
41:13See what happens.
41:14Just pull on it?
41:14Pull on it.
41:15It should go up to the bell.
41:21Hello?
41:22Yes, hello?
41:25Put it again.
41:26We try again and again.
41:28But no one answers.
41:30They know we were coming, so something must be wrong.
41:33So do you think they remember you from last time?
41:35Who knows?
41:37Maybe I'm blacklisted.
41:39I'm beginning to think Sean may be right.
41:42These people may have something to hide.
41:44Let's go.
41:45We explore around the isolated monastery.
41:48Tell you what, at first glance, this looks more like a fort than it does a monastery.
41:51The wall here is just covered with Arabic graffiti that refers to Yasser Arafat.
41:54And here, the very calling card of Hamas, it says, youth, we are a river of giving.
42:00We don't know weakness.
42:01So what's the message they're trying to send by placing these types of statements on the wall here?
42:05Oh, they're saying this may be a Greek Orthodox church.
42:07This area may be occupied by Israeli forces in a way, but we, Hamas, we control this land.
42:13Are the monks not talking to us for political reasons?
42:16Or are they concealing the treasure we're here to find?
42:22Now it looks like Sean is right, and we are getting close.
42:25This mountainside is completely honeycombs with caves and openings.
42:30Oh, look at this.
42:32All right.
42:34Sean is convinced that the treasures of the second temple are hidden in the monastery
42:39or in the caves that surround it.
42:42And you're saying that these caves kind of go all over through this hillside, huh?
42:46Yeah, the whole mountain is one big Swiss cheese.
42:48So you believe that the treasure was here, but we don't have the clues yet?
42:52Based on the evidence we've got, I would place it here on this mountainside.
42:56If anyone really knows the secret location of God's gold,
43:00it's the monks at the monastery of St. Theodosius.
43:04So with the day drawing to a close, we try one more time.
43:08The lights are on, let's see if someone's home.
43:12Ah, someone's stuck here.
43:14Hello?
43:14Hello?
43:16Yeah.
43:17Where are you?
43:18Hello?
43:19Me?
43:19No, no, no visit.
43:21No, no, no visit.
43:22Hello?
43:23Hello?
43:24No visit?
43:24We have a permit.
43:25No, no, no.
43:26What day?
43:27We have a permit for today.
43:30We have a permit from the patriarch.
43:32No, no visit.
43:34No visit?
43:35No.
43:35Can we talk to somebody?
43:38Please, please.
43:40But we have permission.
43:43Can we talk to somebody, please?
43:47I find this all very curious.
43:48The monks refused to let us in,
43:51leading me to believe there's a lot more to learn inside this monastery.
43:56I started this journey on the trail of the lost treasure of Jerusalem's Second Temple.
44:00Sean Kingsley and I followed the path of this treasure as it moved across the Mediterranean
44:04from one great civilization to another.
44:06And now I find myself here in the west bank outside Bethlehem in front of a sealed monastery,
44:12where the trail mysteriously seems to end.
44:17Is God's gold hidden with the monks of Saint Theodosius?
44:21It seems possible.
44:25Maybe they think revealing the location of these religious relics is too divisive in a war-torn land.
44:32And maybe they're right.
44:39So the mystery continues, huh?
44:41Well, Golden Ogold has been a great trip across some of the world's most iconic locations.
44:45Just promise me one thing, though.
44:47Call me up when you get that next big clue, huh?
44:49You got it.
44:50All right.
44:51Get out of here.
Comments