When I say treasure, you probably think of
a good thing - finding gold or jewels or perhaps some ancient scroll of wisdom. Treasure is valuable by its very nature - that
means the people who buried it want it protected - throughout history, there have been tales
of people willing to put curses on their treasure in order to stop unwanted hands from getting
hold of it. Even if you don't believe in curses - these
stories are too strange and creepy to ignore - my name is Danny Burke and this is the Top
10 Cursed Treasures That Ended Lives Starting off at number 10 now we have King
Tuts Curse[a]. This is perhaps one of the most famous curses
of all time that were starting off with. In 1922, Egyptologist Howard Carter discovered
Tutakhamuns tomb in the Valley of Kings Egypt - to this day, it remains the only royal burial
of an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh found in modern times. An inscription on the wall read -Death shall
come on swift wings to him who disturbs the peace of the King- … ignoring this warning,
Carter and his team entered and began to remove the priceless artifacts. 6 weeks later, Carters associate died from
a mosquito bite. Soon after, relatives of the team began to
die in mysterious circumstances. One famous example involved their secretary
being found dead in her bed which drove her father to commit suicide. In total, there have been some 11 deaths linked
to King Tuts curse, and some say they will never end unless the tombs treasure is returned
… Moving on to number 9 now we have The Hope
Diamond[b]. This is one of the most famous diamonds in
the world - a 45.52 carat piece that has been owned by a number of famous people over the
years going right back to King Louis the 16th and Marie Antoinette who owned it during the
French Revolution and their beheadings - they werent the only deaths that legend has linked
to the diamond though. They say that tragedy befalls anyone who owns
or wears it. Here are some random owners Ive plucked out
from the long list - Jacques Colet bought it and later committed suicide. Prince Ivan Kanitovski was the next owner
before being killed by Russian revolutionists. The original merchant who brought the diamond
from India to Paris was later torn to pieces by wild dogs in Constantinople. The list of gore, misery and death just goes
on. The last person to privately own the diamond,
a woman called Evalyn McClean - had her daughter die of an overdose and her son died in a car
crash. Of course, these could all be random tragic
events - some say the stories were fabricated to add to the diamonds fame - but either way,
the Blood Diamond now sits behind glass at the Smithsonian Museum. Next up at number 8 we have the Lost Dutchmans
Mine[c]. According to legend, there is a vast and plentiful
gold mine hidden somewhere in southwestern US. If you want me to be more specific about that
- they say its thought to be in the Superstition Mountains, east of Phoenix Arizona. In the 1840s, the Peralta family of northern
Mexico supposedly developed rich gold mines in the mountains. They kept it very secret and when they were
supposedly killed by the Apache tribe, the secret of the mines location died with them. Today, the area is known as the Massacre Grounds. A few decades later, a German man called Jacob
Waltz set out to look for the mine - they called him -the Dutchman- … he tracked down
of the descendants of the family to help him find the mine. He and his partner, Jacob Weiser, worked the
mine - there was more gold than they could ever image. They supposedly hid some caches of gold in
the mountains. According to the story, Weister was killed
by the Apache tribe and Waltz died in Pheonix some 20 years later. He supposedly passed the knowledge of the
mines location on to his neighbour who cared for him before he died. Neither she nor other treasure hunters over
the years have been successful in finding the mine. Many of them have met mysterious deaths during
their search, leading to the legend of the Lost Dutchman and the cursed treasure he found
… Moving on to number 7 we have Cahuenga Pass[d]. In 1964, a shepherd named Diego Moreno told
people he had found treasure in the mountains near LA. Today, the area is called Cahuenga Pass and
Whitley Heights. The treasure was immense - more than $200,000
in gold, diamonds, pearls. They had been left there on the trail by four
agents from Mexico. They planned to exchange them for guns to
aid a political struggle in Mexico but before they reached their destination, one of the
agents suddenly died in a mysterious death. The other agents suspected French spies were
trying to bump them off, so they split the treasure up and hid it in the hills. When they found that the treasure had been
stolen, they blamed each other - a fight broke out and two of the agents killed each other. Another agent died later while breaking up
a bar fight later. Meanwhile, the Shepard was in a tavern on
his way to L.A to sell the treasure. That night, he had a nightmare in which he
entered LA with the treasure and died. He decided to bury it under a large ash tree. The shepard fell ill though on the rest of
the journey. His friend cared for him as he died - the
shepards final words were to tell his friend where the treasure was buried so that he could
have it. Soon after though, his friend had violent
convulsions and also died. He was buried by his son and his friend - they
managed to locate the treasure but as you can probably guess by now - one of them had
convulsions and died when they began to dig - the other ran for his life. They say the treasure still remains there
to this day - buried under an Ash tree along the Cahuenga pass … Moving on to number 6 we have The Cursed Dollars[e]. In 2011, a 49 year old man from Illinois found
a bag containing 150,000 dollars in his garden while he was picking broccoli. He told police who and turned the bag over
on the understanding that if the money was not claimed by anyone else by the end of 2012,
it would be his. Eventually, his 87 year old neighbour staked
a claim. Before she died in January 2013, the woman,
who suffered from dementia, told the court that she had gotten rid of the money because
it was cursed. The court decided to give the bulk of the
money to the womans daughter and give the man a smaller finders fee. However, just 10 days before he as set to
collect his money - he died suddenly from diabetic problems after waiting two years
for his share. Curse or tragic timing? At the number 5 spot we have The Money Pit[f]. In 1795, three teenage boys stumbled across
a man made hole on Oak Island, just off the coast of Nova Scotia. Theories about who dug the whole ranged from
Spanish sailors from a wrecked galleon to British troops fighting during the American
Revolution. Whoever made it - legend says it holds ancient
treasure for anyone with the skills to retrieve it. So far they have found wadern barriers, a
strange layer of coconut husks and a mysterious code written on a stone. It was deciphered and found to read -Forty
Feet Below Two Million Pounds are Buried- … its because of this, that treasure hunters
from all over the world have flocked to the island - hoping to be the ones to cash in
- and many of them have met strange deaths. In 1861, a water pump exploded killing a worker. In 1897, a man died in a pulley accident. In 1951, a team used a clamshell digger than
fell off a barge and sunk. Most famously, in 1965, adventurer Robert
Restall, his son and two of their co workers died after inhaling poisonous gas while trapped
in the bit. The Money Pit has claimed a number of victims
over the years, and nobody is any closer to finding the treasure … Moving on to number 4 now we have the Koh
i Noor diamond[g]. Just like the Blood Diamond earlier - this
is a very expensive, very famous diamond that has been blamed for a number of deaths over
the years. They say theres records of the diamond going
back 5000 years in the middle east. The curse was first mentioned in 1306. The 105 carat diamond came with a Hindu text
that read -He who owns this diamond will own the world, but will also know all its misfortunes. Only god, or a woman, can wear it with impunity-
… so, there you go - if any females are watching, the curse wont affect you - also
if God is watching, it wont affect you either. It was stolen by the British in the 1800s. Queen Victoria had it cut up into small diamonds
- some of which can be seen in the coronation crown of the Queen Mother - is this a nod
to the fact that a male can never wear the diamond? Perhaps - do we have any volunteers to test
the theory? Next up at number 3 we have Charles Island[h]. This island is located off the coast of Milford
in Connecticut - they say that the whole island has been cursed not once, not twice - but
three times in its history. According to legend, the first came in 1639
when the Paugussett tribe chief traded it to European settlers - but not before cursing
it over their kidnapping of his daughter. 60 years later, Scottish pirate Captain William
Kidd was lured to the island into a trap that led to his trial and execution, he cursed
the island that led to his downfall. Fast Forward to 1721 and a group of connecticut
sailors stumbled across some treasure in Mexico that belonged to an Aztec Emperor called Guatemozin. The sailors brought it back home to Connecticut
but soon after, disasters befell them that led to the death of 4 out of 5 of their group. The last man panicked, believing the treasure
to be cursed, and buried it on Charles island. In the years since, many treasure hunters
have tried and failed to retrieve the cursed treasure and locals blame the cursed island
for the lack of humans settling there in all this time. Next up at number 2 we have The Curse of the
Amber Room[i]. Have you heard of the 8th wonder of the world? Thats what people used to call this room - a
gift to Peter the great in 1716, celebrating peace between Russia and Prussia. It was covered, floor to ceiling in gold and
jewels - the walls were made of pure amber. Fast forward to the World War 2 and the Nazis
managed to take control of the building and the room - and then they took the room - no
really - they took it. They took it apart and carried it bit by bit
back to Germany. After the war though - nobody knew where it
was! Some say it was buried in the mountains, others
say the Nazis stole a fake one and that the Russians still have the real one - either
way, there is a curse attached to the whole thing, supposedly. The curator of the room while the KGB investigated
the case died of typhoid. An investigator was killed in a car crash
after talking about it, a famous amber room hunter was mysteriously murdered in a forest
- Im beginning to think this room doesnt want to be found … And finally at number 1 we have Quin Shi Huangs
Tomb[j]. Quin Shi Haung is known as Chinas first Emporer. When he died in 210 B.C - his tomb was filled
with everything that his people felt was appropriate for a man of his standing - this included
hundreds of slaves, concubines, gold and jewels as well as thousands of terracotta statues
- they make up what is known as the Terracotta army. As you can see from these pictures - the area
is huge and a lot of it has been excavated - except for one area. To this day, the mausoleum which holds the
Emperor is off limits to all. Well, the official line is that the site is
surrounded by a thick river of mercury which could easily kill excavators who are not too
careful. Others say that this is just the cover story
and that the the tomb and its final treasures are protected by an ancient curse - there
are writings that talk about a number of booby traps that protect the area - are the scientists
put off by the thought of this too? Either way, of all the treasures weve looked
at so far - Quin Shi Huangs might actually remain untouched … Alright guys - what did you make of that? I know some of you don't believe in curses
- Id have to lean towards that side of things too - but I do find these kinds of stories
fascinating - especially if there is no rational explanation for the tragedies that surround
the cursed treasure. Leave your thoughts on that down below, let
me know if youd like me to talk about more cursed objects - until next time, thanks for
watching as always, my name is Danny Burke and Ill see you all in the next video!
