4+ More Hours Of History’s Most Mysterious Treasures

0:00:00 The Honjo Masamune is perhaps the greatest Japanese sword ever made. Forged in the 13th century by the great swordsmith Masamune it became the ceremonial sword of the ruling Tokugawa shoguns for 250 years. After their fall from power in 1868 the great sword continued to be passed down the generations into the 20th century, but in the aftermath of the Second World War it disappeared.

0:48:43 Fifteen years ago Michael Hesemann, a German historian, set out to establish the authenticity of one of the most important Christian relics ever found. It’s called the Titulus Crucis, or Title of the Cross, a small piece of wood that, it’s claimed, hung on the cross of Christ announcing his name and crime. It’s displayed in a church in Rome. But is it real or a mediaeval fake?

1:36:40 In 1941 the Germans looted one of the Soviet Union’s most important art works, called the Amber Room. An extraordinary series of C18 amber screens worth millions of pounds and considered, by many, the 8th wonder of the world. It was taken to the Baltic city of Konigsberg. 4 years later at the end of the war, it had vanished. So began one of the greatest treasure hunts of the twentieth century.

2:25:28 A rich and exotic Queen of Sheba brought King Solomon gifts of gold from the mystical land of Ophir. But where was Ophir? Where had all that gold come from? For 1000 of years, ancient Greeks, Renaissance adventurers, Victorian explorers, and modern day scientists have searched for the source of Solomon’s gold. A mysterious place that would famously become known as King Solomon’s Mines.

3:13:01 Legend tells that somewhere in South America there is a great city of gold, El Dorado, a fabulously rich and sophisticated kingdom that was once home to thousands of people living deep in the Amazon jungle. To most people it was just a legend. But for British explorer, Colonel Percy Fawcett, it was real. Convinced he knew the location of this lost world, he spent years searching for it.

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