Original subtitles

WILLIAM SHATNER: A buried treasure belonging to

one of the most feared pirates to ever roam the seas.

A lost cache of gold protected by a deadly curse.

And a confounding cipher

that could reveal a vast fortune.

The fascinating tales of lost treasures,

missing fortunes,

and elusive riches have sparked the human imagination for ages.

And the prospect of actually finding

precious valuables has motivated

an uncountable number of brave souls to hunt

for where X marks the spot.

But these grand adventures to follow the clues

to vast riches often come with great risks,

and sometimes, deadly curses.

How likely is it that there really is

treasure hidden all around us, just out of our reach?

Well, that is what we'll try and find out.

♪ ♪

Every year, thousands of people gather

at the Ocracoke Pirate jamboree

to experience a taste

of swashbuckling life on the high seas.

The fair commemorates the defeat

of the most famous and feared pirate

in colonial history, known by the name of...

Blackbeard.

Edward Teach, also known as Blackbeard,

is a legendary pirate.

Now, not much is known about him in his early years.

But it's believed that he grew up in Bristol,

which is a town in England,

and from there, he moved on to Jamaica,

where he worked as a privateer

in the War of Spanish Succession,

and that was where his career as a pirate really began.

SHATNER: During the War of Spanish Succession

from 1701 to 1713,

the English government gave captains

of private merchant ships permission

to attack and plunder vessels

that were owned by Spain and France.

Blackbeard was one of those captains,

who were referred to as "privateers."

MIKE DANIEL: After 1713,

when the war ended,

if you continued to be a privateer,

you were no longer a privateer. You were a pirate.

Blackbeard and a lot of them became pirates

because there was no other way of making a living.

REBECCA SIMON: In 1717, Blackbeard got his own ship and became

one of the most infamous pirate captains who ever lived.

He made himself look as terrifying as possible.

He had a very long black beard, he had very long black hair.

And during battle,

he would put fuses or even candles

into his beard and hair,

so smoke would kind of rise up

and it looked like he was coming out of hell.

Imagine this huge, towering figure

with this big, burly, black beard...

...and slow-burning fuses coming out

from underneath his hat just sparkling.

That really created his reputation

as the legendary pirate Blackbeard.

SIMON: Blackbeard and his fellow pirates were

plundering and stealing loot from ships all the time.

In fact, so many,

we don't even know the exact number...

...of ships that Blackbeard was able to loot.

But they're able to take a lot of loot.

SHATNER: In 1718, after spending years

capturing and plundering ships on the high seas,

Blackbeard's notorious career came to an abrupt end

when he was attacked

off the southern tip of Ocracoke Island.

The governor of Virginia told his Coast Guard

to capture Blackbeard at all costs.

And so the job went to Lieutenant Robert Maynard.

And on November 22 of 1718,

Maynard came upon Blackbeard's ship

and immediately engaged him into battle.

And Blackbeard engaged in a fight

with one of the men who ended up

stabbing Blackbeard in the thigh,

and supposedly, Blackbeard shouted,

"Well done, lad!"

And then Lieutenant Robert Maynard ends up

beheading Blackbeard on the ship,

And Blackbeard's head was placed

on the bowsprit of a ship and sailed up and down

the eastern seaboard so everyone would know

that Blackbeard had been killed in battle.

SHATNER: In the centuries since Blackbeard's death,

the mystery of his lost fortune has captivated generations

of treasure hunters.

SIMON: If someone went out

to find Blackbeard's treasure,

they would find approximately 12 and a half million dollars

in today's currency.

And so, all kinds of rumors and legends

about his treasure are definitely still out there,

and people are looking for it.

And reportedly, what Blackbeard said was,

"Only the Devil and I know the whereabouts of my treasure,

and the one of us who lives the longest should take it all."

SHATNER: With little information to go on as to where on Earth

Blackbeard's treasure may be hidden,

fortune seekers began searching the waters of Onslow Bay

for the legendary pirate ship the Queen Anne's Revenge.

Just four months before his death,

Blackbeard ran his frigate aground

near the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Some speculate that the pirate wrecked his ship on purpose,

as a way to cheat his crew from receiving their share

of the latest plunder.

The sunken vessel eluded discovery until 1996,

when Mike Daniel and a team of divers

used their treasure hunting skills

to pinpoint exactly where X marked the spot.

DANIEL: Over the years, I've found a lot of treasure--

a lot of gold, a lot of emeralds, a lot of silver.

For instance, I found a shipwreck called the Maravilla.

1656 Spanish galleon.

One of the richest ever to sink.

The whole process of finding a shipwreck

is first you get the documentation.

It gives you a pretty good idea of where you should be looking.

And so, in order to go search for the Queen Anne's Revenge,

you know, we started looking through

the various historical documents.

And it was said that the Queen Anne's Revenge

supposedly ran aground trying to enter Topsail Inlet,

up in North Carolina.

Even though it's "Beaufort Inlet" today,

it was "Topsail Inlet" at the time.

And once you've got that pinned down,

now what you do is you set up a grid system

and then travel down that line towing a magnetometer,

a electronic piece of equipment

that measures very minute magnetism.

If there is an anomaly in the water,

it would tell you something's there.

And we had a pretty major hit.

I go down, take a look

and I spot the three cannons right away.

They're sitting in-- off to the side of this big mound.

And that's when we actually said, "Yeah, we've got it."

SIMON: Today, over 400,000 items

have actually been excavated off of the Queen Anne's Revenge.

And these include things like 24 huge cannons came out of it.

They've also found other goods such as personal effects,

and they've found weapons, as well.

SHATNER: But despite the vast number of artifacts

archaeologists have salvaged from the Queen Anne's Revenge,

they found no sign of Blackbeard's treasure.

Which begs the question,

where could it be?

It's a mystery

that still fascinates treasure hunters to this day.

SIMON: The big question is, what happened to the gold

on the Queen Anne's Revenge?

It's possible that some of it

has just been kind of dispersed into the sea.

It could be, perhaps, that Blackbeard offloaded much of it

before actually abandoning the Queen Anne's Revenge.

It's one of the big mysteries about Blackbeard

that we just don't really know.

SHATNER: While the discovery of the Queen Anne's Revenge

was a massive accomplishment,

the fact remains that Blackbeard's treasure

is still missing.

And the notorious pirate's gold

isn't the only riches

treasure hunters have yearned to discover.

In fact, deep in the Arizona mountains,

many unlucky adventurers have tried

to find a fortune guarded by a deadly curse.

SHATNER: In Southern Arizona,

50 miles east of Phoenix,

lie the Superstition Mountains.

These jagged peaks rise approximately 1,800 feet

into the sky

and dominate the surrounding landscape.

According to the folklore of the native Apache people,

the Superstition Mountains are a sacred place

that is guarded by a supernatural entity

-known as... -(thunder rumbling)

...the Thunder God.

To the native Apache, the Superstition Mountains

are the home of the Thunder God

and, as such, they should be respected.

Most Apache will not enter the Superstition Mountains,

because they believe that to do so

could anger the Thunder God,

causing him to lash out

and probably kill the person who has violated his space.

RON FELDMAN: The Apache, they did not live too much in the Superstitions.

Because that's where the Thunder God lived,

was in the Superstitions.

And many times, actually, I've heard

thunder sounds even when there is no thunderstorms around.

(thunder rumbling)

There's something there.

I mean, definitely, the mountains do roar at times.

The mountains rumble by themselves.

And it's been attributed to, of course,

the Apache religion of their Thunder God.

SHATNER: The Superstition Mountains got their name in the 1800s,

when pioneers heard tales from the local Native Americans

about people mysteriously disappearing,

or suddenly dying,

after entering this sacred mountain range.

But in spite of these warnings,

settlers often did not view the Superstition Mountains

with such reverence.

For those who came to the Superstition Mountains

during the Wild West era in search of gold,

the Superstition Mountains,

like every other part of the American landscape,

were a resource waiting to be tapped.

This was a place of possibility,

this was a place of possible wealth.

LYNNE McNEILL: We tend to associate

this idea of westward expansion with discovery,

when, of course, there were humans there

all along, for centuries,

who already had an existing relationship with that land.

They knew what was in it

and had their own beliefs

about what was an appropriate way

to interact with this landscape.

DOWNS: The Apache were not happy to see these settlers coming in

to their sacred land, and, according to legend,

put a curse on the land

that would result in the deaths of anybody

who tried to mine the Superstition Mountains,

because they believe that to do so

is to risk angering the Thunder God.

SHATNER: There are those who believe

the curse of the Superstition Mountains

is both real and deadly.

-(thunder rumbling) -As evidence,

they point to a curious treasure mystery

that took place in the mountains

over the course of more than a hundred years.

The story begins with the untimely demise

of the Peraltas,

a family of prospectors who went searching for gold

in the Superstitions in the 1840s.

The Peralta family were supposedly the Spanish

that came first to mine

in the Superstition wilderness.

And they worked several mines in an area where there was gold,

there was silver, and they mined for both.

JESSE: As the story goes, the Spanish Peralta family

amassed crude bullion bars

from their mine.

And what I mean by "crude,"

that would be, uh, made of gold,

silver, copper and lead.

And they stored this wealth

in a hidden drift underground.

And then, suddenly,

the Apache attack the miners.

RON: The Apaches got

tired of them being there

and destroying the natural beauty of this place.

They were intruders,

and the Apache, in 1848, wiped them out.

SHATNER: After the massacre, the Apaches reportedly buried the gold,

and backfilled the mine in order to appease the Thunder God.

But since that time, treasure hunters have not been scared off

by the fate of the Peralta family

or the supposed curse.

Over the years, thousands of fortune seekers

have journeyed to the Superstition Mountains

in search of the lost gold.

McNEILL: The desire

to find the hidden resources,

to find this treasure

that history tells us is there,

is exciting people to this day,

and that sense of possibility and potential,

that there's still more wealth, more prosperity

to be had is something that

is really hard to squash.

SHATNER: According to some estimates, at least 600 people

have lost their lives searching for gold

in the Superstition Mountains.

Many of these people died in bizarre and gruesome ways

that defy explanation,

perhaps lending credence to the notion

that the mountains are actually cursed.

The most famous of these incidents

was the death of a man named Adolph Ruth.

RON: Back in the 1930s, there was Adolph Ruth.

He was a treasure hunter, amongst other things,

and he came out here to hunt the actual mine.

And he disappeared,

and after about six months,

they found his head and his body

separated.

It became nationally known.

And a lot of people wanted to come out

looking for the mine because of Adolph Ruth.

There's good reason to believe that there

could be a curse on the Superstition Mountains.

A lot of people have died prospecting for gold,

and bodies have been found with their head missing,

which seems like something that couldn't happen

from natural causes,

and something that may have

some kind of supernatural origin.

In an interesting way,

the stories of Native American curses

are a way of commemorating the dark history of the land,

and acknowledging that the original inhabitants

were forced off of the land, and, in many cases, killed.

It's about remembering that the present situation

was arrived at through some

dark actions.

SHATNER: Could a curse really be protecting

a hidden fortune deep within the Superstition Mountains?

The land's name and troubling history

certainly makes it a distinct possibility.

But there is another treasure that is not

concealed by a curse but rather a code.

It is known as the Beale Cipher,

and solving it could finally reveal a cache

of missing gold.

SHATNER: This rural area is filled with rolling foothills,

patchy forests

and quaint farms and cottages.

But there are those who believe that Bedford County

also holds the answer to a 200-year-old mystery...

...the mystery of the Beale treasure.

Thomas J. Beale was an educated man

from here in the local area

in the 1820s.

And him and a bunch of his buddies went out west

for an adventure.

They were young and rich and educated,

and wanted to see the West.

CORT LINDAHL: Thomas Beale

and his compatriots,

said to be up to 30 people,

traveled first to St. Louis.

Then they traveled north into Colorado,

where they were said to have found

a deposit of gold and silver,

which they worked for several months

and then transported back to Virginia,

hiding it in a vault somewhere in Bedford County.

SHATNER: A hidden vault filled with millions in gold and silver?

It's certainly an incredible story.

But that's not why we're still talking about

the Beale treasure today.

The real reason why it has become so famous

and sought after is because of the ingenious way

Thomas Beale decided to hide his fortune.

LINDAHL: No one really knows why Thomas Beale

decided to hide the treasure, but it could be because,

at the time this was found,

Colorado was still part of Spain,

and they would have,

if they would have been caught mining there,

it would have been a capital offense,

and they would have gotten in a lot of trouble.

We do know Thomas Beale gave a box

to Robert Morris in Lynchburg, Virginia,

who ran a boarding house there in about 1822,

with instructions for him not to open it

until 1832.

THOMSON: Beale goes, "I want you to keep this for safekeeping

"'cause I'll be back in about ten years,

"and if I'm not,

you're free to open it up and figure out what's going on."

SHATNER: But as the story goes, Thomas Beale never returned.

He disappeared and was never seen or heard from again.

So, naturally,

Mr. Morris began to wonder...

"What's in the box?"

THOMSON: About 20 years later,

Mr. Morris goes, "Oh, yeah, that's right.

It's been more than ten years. I can open up this box."

Well, he opens up the box, and there's three letters

that are all written in numbers.

It was like, "12 comma, 537 comma, 16 comma, eight."

Just a bunch of numbers.

And Mr. Morris, he's like,

"Okay.

I have no idea how to solve this."

SHATNER: Thomas Beale had written the three notes

using a simple but effective secret code

that is known as a book cipher.

This technique replaces letters with numbers,

creating a code based on a secret source document.

But until you know what document the numbers correspond to,

it's impossible to decode the cipher

and reveal the secret message.

DAVID ORANCHAK: It was a type of encryption used a lot during

the Revolutionary War, and the numbers

would indicate line numbers and word numbers within,

like, a dictionary

or a law manual or something like that.

It's fairly secure, provided that you keep

the identity of the book or source material secret.

SHATNER: Since no one knew what text

Thomas Beale had used as his cipher,

the three messages remained unsolved for decades.

That is, until 1885,

when a man named James B. Ward

began selling a 50-cent pamphlet

which revealed that Beale had used a surprising document

as the cipher for the second message:

the Declaration of Independence.

What Thomas Beale had done was

he wrote a number under each word

of the Declaration of Independence in order.

So starting at the first word-- one, two, three, four, five--

all the way down to the 800s or the 900s.

And so he took the "I"

in the first word of the message

and looked for a word starting with the letter "I"

in the Declaration of Independence.

And then he picked one of them, and looked at the number

that he had written underneath it and used

that number to stand for that letter "I."

And so, he continued to the next letter in his message.

Wrote down the number associated with that word

and then continued along to create

this long sequence of numbers.

Apparently, what he had done was

he encoded three messages,

one of which described

the contents of the treasure, another describing its location.

And then the third note, uh, describes

the owners of the treasure and, uh, their relatives.

THOMPSON: Mr. Ward took the Declaration of Independence

and was able to compare that with the one letter.

And he was able to figure out how that worked.

Mr. Ward was able to translate:

"I have deposited in the County of Bedford

"about four miles from Buford's,

"six feet below the surface of the ground,

"1,014 pounds of gold,

"and 3,812 pounds of silver

deposited November 1819."

If the description of the contents of the vault,

if it's truthful, the treasure is estimated

to be worth about $40 million in today's money.

So, obviously, that's a very compelling

motivation to find,

uh, the solutions to the other ciphers.

THOMPSON: But the first letter, which says exactly

where it's located, has never been decoded.

So-- which is one reason why people

don't know where exactly it's within those four miles.

SHATNER: One place that is located

within the four-mile area that Beale described

is a farm owned by a man named Danny Johnson.

Which is why, for decades,

people have been coming to his property in search

of the Beale treasure.

People from all over the world have been here

to find that treasure.

And every single one of them has a different

idea of where the treasure is buried.

And some people have dug without permission.

There's probably been, I don't know how many holes dug

right around me.

Every single one of them

believes that they have broken the code.

You've got generations of researchers that are coming

and looking for this gold and silver.

You're talking about a lot of money.

And I think that's why people are still looking for it.

Will the confounding codes of

Thomas Beale's cipher ever be solved?

Well, for now, the location of the prospector's fortune

remains lost to history.

But there's another rich mystery,

whose origins date back thousands of years.

It concerns the wealth of King Solomon,

and a trove of gold that was once hidden

in a temple bearing his name.

SHATNER: In the deserts of southern Israel

lies a mountainous region

that is called the Timna Valley.

Today, this area is known

for its uniquely shaped sandstone cliffs.

But more than 3,000 years ago,

the Timna Valley was the site

of a vast network of copper mines.

MULLINS: In the Timna Valley,

mining activity took place

for a long, long time.

And most of the mining operations

took place underground.

The deepest is about 115 feet.

They would hew in the ground circular shafts.

And, going down that shaft,

they would cut steps into the side of the shaft.

And they would tunnel along horizontally,

where they would extract the copper

and take it back up to the surface.

SHATNER: In recent years, the Timna mines have attracted attention

because there are those who believe

that buried underground in one of these deep tunnels

is the legendary lost treasure

of the biblical King Solomon.

In the Old Testament of the Bible,

King Solomon is described as a noble and wise ruler of Israel.

Historians believe that Solomon was a real person

who lived in the tenth century BC.

King Solomon is an intriguing figure,

because the Bible makes so many claims about him

controlling vast amounts of territory.

According to the Bible,

Solomon expanded ancient Israel considerably,

from the Euphrates River in the north,

all the way to the River of Egypt.

And so a much more expansive, uh, territory.

The Bible also describes

Solomon controlling vast amounts of wealth.

Solomon decides to build a temple,

uh, in Jerusalem.

The temple becomes the home of God.

And he spares no expense.

And he was so committed

to having the best temple in the region

that he actually imports the finest materials

to build this temple.

SHATNER: According to the Bible,

Solomon's Temple was built from the best limestone

and cedar wood.

Inside, the walls were overlaid with pure gold.

And Solomon adorned the temple with objects made out of copper,

which was also a precious metal at the time.

King Solomon ruled Israel for 40 years,

before dying in 931 BC.

Upon his death, Solomon reportedly left behind

an enormous amount of gold and other riches

in his magnificent temple.

But then, in 586 BC,

the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem

-and sacked Solomon's Temple. -(clamoring, clanging)

ARIEL BAR TZADOK: When the Temple

of Solomon was destroyed in 586 BCE,

all the temple treasures were lost to history.

And the ancient legend says that Solomon's treasures

were taken out of Jerusalem and buried.

There are those who believe that the treasures

are, to this day, still hidden.

SHATNER: For centuries, the legend of King Solomon's lost treasure

has been a source of fascination and mystery.

In 1885, the story was exposed to a wider audience

when author H.R. Haggard wrote his famous novel

King Solomon's Mines,

which speculated that Solomon's treasures

were hidden deep in a underground mineshaft.

But if there is some truth to this legend,

then where is King Solomon's treasure buried?

For some, the most likely location is the Timna mines.

MULLINS: The Timna Valley is located

not more than 150 miles from Jerusalem.

So we're talking about close proximity.

At Timna, there are 10,000 mineshafts,

maybe more.

And so it's easy for people to kind of say,

"There must be a connection."

SHATNER: In the last several decades, numerous researchers have tried

to prove that the Timna mines are, in fact,

the hiding place of King Solomon's lost treasures.

Some of the first evidence in support of this theory

was found by an archaeologist named Nelson Glueck,

who conducted a series of excavations at Timna

in the 1930s.

COLLINS: Nelson Glueck

made a huge study of the-the copper mines,

the smelting works

and also the camps of those that were there.

And what he found under the ground

was pottery dating from

the ninth to tenth century BC.

And this was the exact timeframe

of the reign of King Solomon.

And so, for Nelson Glueck,

he felt that he had discovered evidence

of Solomon's mines.

SHATNER: Nelson Glueck's discoveries made sensational headlines

around the world.

However, despite years of searching,

Glueck was unable to locate the fabled treasure,

and some experts began to think that Glueck was wrong

to associate the Timna mines with King Solomon.

But then, in 2019,

a team of archaeologists

led by Professor Erez Ben-Yosef of Tel Aviv University

made a remarkable discovery.

While excavating an ancient mining worksite at Timna

that is referred to as Slaves' Hill,

they found more evidence that links this location

to King Solomon.

SHATNER: It seems that the truth about this treasure

of biblical proportions will continue

to be unearthed, one artifact

and one clue at a time.

But there is another fortune,

not buried in the Holy Land,

but rather in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York.

The story involves a seasoned mobster, a murder,

and a very large stash of missing cash.

SHATNER: Phoenicia, upstate New York.

This quaint town at the base of the Catskills

is primarily known for being a popular vacation destination.

But it is also known as the hiding place

of an incredible lost fortune.

Because according to legend, somewhere in this area,

a safe was buried

that contains tens of millions of dollars

in cash, bonds, and jewelry

that belonged to a gangster named Dutch Schultz.

Dutch Schultz was one of the most iconic

early 20th century mobsters in America.

He was someone that had a name and a reputation--

that spread across the country-- as a real tough guy,

and he became a millionaire

during Prohibition on bootlegging

and various other rackets.

ALTERMAN: Dutch Schultz became what was known as

the Beer Baron of the Bronx

because, during Prohibition, uh, it was hard to get beer.

And if you wanted beer,

you had to get it from Dutch Schultz

because he controlled everything

above 57th Street and in the Bronx.

SHATNER: In the early 1930s, the FBI started building a case

against Dutch Schultz

in an effort to crack down on organized crime.

The investigation was led by U.S Attorney Thomas Dewey.

Thomas Dewey was a very smart prosecutor.

He went methodically after all of the criminals.

So, Dutch became so paranoid

that he wanted to bury his wealth

before they could take it.

BURNSTEIN: Supposedly, while he was under indictment,

Dutch Schultz had a customized safe constructed for him

that was airproof, soundproof, weatherproof.

Him and his bodyguard

put what was thought to be anywhere between

five and ten million dollars in that safe,

as well as jewelry and bonds,

and they allegedly took that safe up to the Catskills

and buried it somewhere.

NATE HENDLEY: The Dutch Schultz treasure is an intriguing notion because

one of the items allegedly put into the treasure box

were liberty bonds,

and these are simply bonds that could be redeemed

at a future date for more than the value you paid for them.

But no liberty bond associated with Dutch Schultz

or any of his accomplices has ever been redeemed.

This is used as one of the clues

that this treasure is still at large.

SHATNER: If it's true that the lost treasure

of Dutch Schultz does, in fact, exist,

then where could it be hidden?

Well, according to many researchers,

the most likely place is somewhere along an old brook

named Stony Clove Creek.

ALTERMAN: Even though Dutch was a city kid,

he knew the Catskills well

because that's where he had his stills making the whiskey.

He'd stay at the Phoenicia Hotel

and then drive up and look at all of his stills.

Back in 1935, there was a train

that went from New York City up to the Catskills.

It went through this area

near Stony Clove Creek and Phoenicia.

One station was called Lanesville,

which was really nothing more than a little shack.

At that time, Dutch was afraid

of being nabbed in a checkpoint with the treasure.

So, treasure hunters have theorized

that he got off the train at Lanesville,

buried the treasure somewhere along the banks

of the Stony Clove Creek

because it's extremely remote.

SHATNER: Is it possible that the lost treasure

of Dutch Schultz is buried somewhere

along the banks of Stony Clove Creek?

We may never know for sure because, in 1935,

a rival gangster named Charlie "Lucky" Luciano

ordered a hit on Dutch Schultz.

ALTERMAN: Dutch Schultz had set up his operation

at the Palace Chop House,

a small restaurant bar establishment

in Newark, New Jersey, and two assassins,

Charles "The Bug" Workman and Mendy Weiss, walk into the bar.

Charles shoots Dutch twice.

And there's that famous picture of Dutch Schultz

with his head on the table after he's been shot twice.

He's grievously injured, but not dead.

SHATNER: Dutch Schultz was immediately rushed to the Newark Hospital,

and some researchers believe that, on his deathbed,

Dutch left a final clue

as to where his treasure vault is buried.

HENDLEY: During his deathbed rant,

he's giving little tidbits of possible information

about his treasure.

At one point he says, "Don't let Satan draw you too fast."

That could just be a ramble, but some treasure hunters believe

this line could be a reference to a geological formation

in the town of Phoenicia called the Devil's Rock.

ALTERMAN: There have been scores of treasure hunters

trying to find this treasure

up in the Catskills around Phoenicia.

It is worth so much that,

today, you could probably buy

a fleet of jumbo jets with just what's in that treasure box.

And that's why everyone's looking for it.

SHATNER: Heavily armed police officers

patrol the entrance to an ancient Hindu temple,

the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple.

By order of India's Supreme Court,

officials begin unsealing six mysterious vaults

which have remained locked beneath the temple

for hundreds of years.

And when archaeologists examined the first five vaults,

they found untold billions in ancient treasure.

JIM DOBSON: The government had to do an inventory of the vaults,

so they did go in and they documented everything

in several of the chambers.

One chamber was just for ornaments and jewelry.

Another chamber was for jewels.

And there were sacks and sacks of diamonds

and rubies and emeralds.

There were thrones made of gold. There was a 300-pound gold veil.

And there was a rope of gold chain

that was 1,100 pounds.

And the reason there's so much money in this temple

is because of contributions and taxes,

and that started when the maharajas and the rulers

started taxing the lower caste system.

SHATNER: The total value of the treasure that was found

in the first five chambers has been estimated to be worth

as much as $22 billion.

But when officials attempted to open the door

to the sixth and final vault,

they made a shocking discovery.

When it came to the sixth door, which they call chamber B,

they were decorated with cobras.

This is a sign of danger, like a skull and crossbones.

DEEPAK SHIMKHADA: That gives you a message:

do not enter or enter on your own risk.

They are massive, huge cobras

and they can be very deadly.

This is a forbidden place.

SHATNER: A forbidden place?

While that may sound like a farfetched notion,

many believe there's a very good reason

not to tamper with Vault B.

Because, according to legend, it may be cursed.

You could not go beyond this point

because there are cobras, there are nagas.

Nagas are the mythical serpents in Hinduism.

And it has been said that, when they sealed the door,

it was locked with a what you call Naga Paasam mantra.

This is like a spell.

Through the naga's mantra, it was locked.

Everyone is scared of the nagas.

And they are thinking that it may be cursed.

That is why, you know, people do not dare to open it.

It could cause many ugly consequences.

DOBSON: Based on what they've heard, the people all fear

that the world will end if that chamber is opened.

And so they're really reticent about doing anything.

Whenever you hear a story that

there is trillions of dollars' worth of buried treasure,

people are always gonna want to know more.

This temple is not hidden. This temple is very public.

People know what's in it, how much is in it,

and what the value is.

And yet, it's hidden to us.

We can't access it. We can't see it.

We can't touch it.

So that's the real mystery.

Would you dare to look past the cobras,

open that sealed door, and risk your life for untold riches?

Regardless of your tolerance to tempt fate,

many brave souls have paid a steep price

on a mission to claim hidden fortunes.

Is there any truth to the legends,

curses, and calamities that surround lost treasures?

And what will be uncovered should Blackbeard's

or Thomas Beale's

or Dutch Shultz's secret stashes ever be discovered?

Will it be gold, jewels, or piles of money?

Ooh, it's an intriguing thought that, for now, remains

unexplained.

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