WHich mythical lost treasure do you think is real? Why?

It's time for a little fun. Throughout time there have been legends about lost treasures, cities and the like. Are any of those tales real? Do any of these lost treasures really exist? It seems nearly every bandit, bank robber, pirate or bad guy/gal worth his or her salt has stashed something of value that is waiting to be found - just as that Mega Millions or Powerball jackpot is just waiting to be won. And of course there are those shipwrecks just waiting to be found.

As a child of the fifties I was naturally a cowboy fan and so I naturally was drawn to those tales of yore. But, I was an even bigger fan of pirate movies - one of my first great movie memories is of Burt Lancaster as the Crimson Pirate   carrying his sabre and wearing red and white striped pants flying

around like an acrobat in the ships lines. Of course there was Blackbeard,  who allegedly left treasure stashed along the eastern seaboard and what kid back then did not know of Long John Silver. Then there was Captain Kidd.

For years there were tals of treasure buried by Captain Kidd on an island off the coast of Nova Scotia. And there were other rumors about Oak Island too - maybe the British buried treasures from their looting of Havana.

Other rumored booty on Oak Island includes Marie  Antoinette's jewels and even the Ark of the Covenant the Holy Grail and some original works of William Shakespeare.

I first heard of Oak Island in my high school library when I read about the deaths of several treasure hunters in August of 1965. I then read what I could find about the island and its treasure lore. I was somewhat dubious but still interested so I kept up with the goings on. I periodically heard about the Templars possibly visiting there and the Templars have always fascinated me

 These guys were the Christian warriors that launched Crusades against the infidels in the Holy Land and accompanied Christians on treks to the Holy Land.  They are also an alleged reason for modern day Islamic terrorism. Like the Chinese, radical Islam plays a long game and holds grudges apparently eternally. They are also perhaps the source of Friday the 13th being an unlucky day as the King of France ordered their arrest on Friday the 13th. In the 1960s the Templars were suggested to have taken possession of certain religious relics such as the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant when  they occupied the Temple on the Mount. They had the ways and means to transport any such relics almost anywhere, including Oak Island.

Jump ahead to 2011 and The History Channel comes out with a series called The Curse of Oak Island. Huzzah - maybe the questions will be answered. We are now midway through the sixth season and we have more questions.
That, of course, includes Oak Island.Read what History Channel says about the Curse of Oak Island here.

A pair of brothers from Michigan, Marty and Rick Lagina have led a team seeking to solve the mystery of Oak Island. You can read a blurb about the  Laginas and their business interests here. I freely admit I am thoroughly hooked on the show and the Mystery of Oak Island, At first I was convinced there was pirate treasure buried there but the more I researched the more that did not seem likely as the things encountered by searchers pointed to something much deeper than Oak Island being a simple pirate treasure dump/hiding place.The engineering required to create the water booby trap alone seemed to me to be well beyond the capabilities of pirates.

So what have the searchers actually found on Oak Island? Read about that here.

What does the future hold for the search? Time for my fanboy conjecture - IMHO there is sufficient evidence to indicate the Templars spent considerable time and effort transporting and hiding religious artifacts on Oak Island. There are some that believe Sir Francis Bacon's manuscripts are buried here. Though sufficient material shows many old books are or were sequestered on Oak Island much of that could also support the Templars and religious texts. Gold and jewels? I don't really care - I find the religious artifacts notion more compelling and interesting. If wrong and there turns out to be nothing? Then I have been watching the worlds longest popcorn movie and have loved every bit of it. But I firmly believe there is something hidden on Oak Island waiting to be found. Only time will tell.

Be sure to visit Ramana's Musings to see what Indian lost treasure Ramana  thinks is real.