A huge number of priceless treasures have disappeared from the historical record throughout the ages. These artefacts often go missing due to theft or under mysterious circumstances during times of war or disaster, when they can’t be protected or when military forces decide to take those treasures as a trophy. Sometimes treasures are recovered, but many are still missing.
Here are some lost treasures that have never been found. A few of these artefacts are now likely destroyed, but some may still exist and one day be recovered.
STOLEN AZTEC TREASURE
Last seen June 1520
In the face of an Aztec rebellion against their colonial occupation, Hernán Cortes and his forces tried to sneak away from the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in the cover of night on 30 June 1520 with a huge haul of Aztec gold. But one of their vessels sank in a now dried-up canal that fed into Lake Texcoco, resulting in the death of many Spanish and the loss of some of the gold.
The Spanish returned a few months later to retrieve the lost gold, but they recovered only a portion of it. Some of that gold was found in 1981 when a construction worker unearthed a centuries-old gold bar in Mexico City – which stands where the Aztec capital and its surrounding waters once lay – but much of the gold is still missing.
SARCOPHAGUS OF MENKAURE
Last seen October 1838
The pyramid of Egyptian pharaoh Menkaure is the smallest of the three pyramids constructed at Giza around 4,500 years ago. In the 1830s, English military officer Howard Vyse explored the Giza pyramids, at times using destructive techniques (his use of explosives being the most notorious) to make his way through the structures.
Vyse made a number of discoveries at Giza, including an ornate sarcophagus
