(mystical music)
- Tonight, sacred treasures imbued with mysterious powers,
some worth billions of dollars,
all waiting to be discovered.
- This treasure confers power and wealth
on whoever controls it.
- [Dennis Quaid] From a lost hoard marked on a biblical map.
- Added up together,
the riches described in the Copper Scroll
would be worth about $3 billion today.
- To the vast fortune of a rich king.
- For centuries, people have been searching
for the legendary King Solomon's mines.
- [Dennis] Or even a magical gem.
- It's such a powerful and prestigious gem,
that Queen Victoria wants it for herself.
- These holy relics stir reverence and greed.
- It only brings gold and good fortune
to those who are pure of heart,
but a vain and power-hungry man
may suffer terrible consequences.
- Sacred objects that have inspired awe
for thousands of years,
now the remarkable stories behind history's
most compelling "Holy Marvels."
(dramatic music)
- [Dennis] Amman, Jordan.
One museum here houses a mysterious artifact.
Though antiquities experts refer to it as 3Q15,
it's more commonly known as the Copper Scroll.
(tense music)
- The Copper Scroll is one of the famous Dead Sea scrolls,
which is this unbelievable
and extraordinary collection of text
discovered in Qumran, Israel,
near the West Bank city of Jericho.
- Most of the Dead Sea scrolls are found in 1947.
It's one of the greatest archeological finds ever.
15,000 fragments of ancient texts
dating from between the third century BC
and the second century AD.
- A lot of them are copies of scripture or religious texts,
including some of the oldest manuscripts ever found
of the books of the Old Testament, or the Hebrew Bible.
(tense music)
- [Dennis] But the Copper Scroll
isn't found until March of 1952.
- French archeologist Henri de Contenson
is searching a partially collapsed cave,
looking for more Dead Sea scrolls.
But instead, he sees an object
that appears to be made of heavily oxidized metal.
- Copper was very precious in the ancient world,
so just the fact that this scroll is written into copper
means it was very expensive to make,
and therefore quite important to whoever made it.
- [Dennis] Immediately, researchers are eager
to find out what it says.
- At first, most of it couldn't be read
because the two pieces of the scroll are rolled up.
After oxidizing for centuries, it's extremely fragile
and opening it would destroy the artifact.
- But the writing we can read on the edges
is very compelling
and very different from the other scrolls.
It's not Bible verses.
- [Dennis] Instead, it appears to be a treasure map.
(tense music)
- There are mentions of gold and silver,
so now, of course, everyone's dying to find out
what's inside the scroll, even more so than before.
They call in a British archeologist
and Dead Sea scrolls expert named John Marco Allegro,
and he suggests they cut the scroll into sections.
- [Dennis] In 1955, the Jordanian government
sends the Copper Scroll
to the Manchester College of Science and Technology
for careful dissection.
- There, the scroll is painstakingly cut
into 23 narrow strips.
Then it's laid out and for the first time,
the scroll's full contents can be seen.
- [Dennis] The sheer scale of the treasure detailed
is beyond what anyone imagined.
- Hidden treasures of gold and silver
buried in more than 60 secret locations
are methodically described in entry after entry.
- [Dennis] Once all the text is translated,
scholars estimate the total value
is about 170 tons of gold and silver.
- Added up together,
the riches described in the Copper Scroll
would be worth about $3 billion today.
Billion with a B.
Potentially making it the largest stash
of buried treasure ever, in history.
- [Dennis] If this treasure really exists,
where could it come from?
- The Copper Scroll leaves a few clues
to the treasure's origin.
Tithes are mentioned,
as are priestly vestments and sacrificial bowls.
And the scroll is written in the Mishnaic Hebrew language,
this suggests that the treasures are religious in nature
and perhaps from a Jewish temple, or multiple temples.
- [Dennis] For more answers, experts look near Qumran,
where the Copper Scroll was found.
- About 15 miles away is Jerusalem,
and that city had the biggest, fanciest,
wealthiest building in the region that we know of,
the first Jewish temple.
In the Bible, it's described as a large
and glorious structure,
originally built on the Temple Mount
by the very wealthy King Solomon in the 10th century BC.
- It's the sacred gathering place,
and really is a symbol of prosperity for centuries.
The temple collects taxes
and receives all sorts of offerings from the faithful.
- [Dennis] But this temple is destroyed
by the Babylonians in 587 BC.
- Most of what was in there still remains unaccounted for,
unless, of course, it's accounted for
in the Copper Scroll.
- There are some people who believe
that everything of value in the temple
was taken and hidden away,
and the Copper Scroll is created to document
the hiding places so that one day,
it can all be recovered to help build the temple.
- [Dennis] According to the Bible's Book of Ezra,
when the Jews are released from captivity in Babylon,
they return to Jerusalem with basins of gold and silver,
and they need somewhere to safeguard it.
- In 516 BC, in the same spot where the First Temple stood,
they start building a Second Temple.
- As with the First Temple,
the Second Temple's treasury
accumulates a vast amount of gold and silver
from local worshipers and pilgrims.
To keep the treasure and his people safe,
King Herod restructures and fortifies
the temple complex in 37 BC.
- [Dennis] But in 70 AD, this temple is also destroyed.
This time, by the Romans.
- Once again, a whole bunch of treasures are lost,
or maybe hidden instead.
- This timeframe of 70 AD
is very close to when experts believe
the Copper Scroll was created
and placed in the cave in Qumran.
- There's even a chance
that the Copper Scroll lists treasures from both
the first and the Second Temples,
since neither has ever been found.
- While the scroll is very specific
about the treasures themselves,
it is intentionally vague about the locations.
Basically, whoever wrote this thing has encoded it.
- Albert Wolters, a professor of religion
at Redeemer University College,
suggests probably a high ranking priest
was sitting there thinking,
"How can I prevent this treasure
from falling into the hands of the Romans?"
- Wolters believes that a plan is devised
to find hiding places on the outskirts of Jerusalem
and the Judean desert,
and this plan would've involved multiple people.
- First, the masterminds of this plan
identify the hiding spots,
then a priest would've written the sights down
on a piece of parchment.
But the way he writes them is very careful,
things like, "In the burial monument
on the third course of stones."
You wouldn't be able to identify where that is
unless you're really familiar
with the location he's referring to.
- He makes it even more obscure
by writing in an uncommon style of Hebrew,
and he mixes in short groups of Greek letters occasionally.
- [Dennis] To ensure the locations remain secret,
the original authors hire an illiterate metal worker
to copy the instructions onto copper.
- Certain letters get confused graphically
because they have similar shapes,
and these are the sorts of mistakes
that a literate scribe would never make.
- [Dennis] Experts spend nearly a decade
trying to unravel the mystery,
until one of them announces a breakthrough.
- [Dennis] Since the discovery of the Copper Scroll in 1952,
scholars have worked around the clock to crack its code.
Eight years later,
one man believes he's finally unlocked it.
- John Marco Allegro from the original research team
assigned to the Copper Scroll,
becomes fascinated by the buried treasure.
- After intensely studying the Copper Scroll,
and as many ancient maps on the region
that he can get his hands on,
Allegro believes he has finally figured out
some of the locations the scroll is talking about,
so he mounts an expedition to search for the treasure.
- Biblical archeology is notoriously tough.
Matching ancient places to current locations
is incredibly challenging.
Sites have been renamed, sands have shifted,
towns and villages that were well-known in their day
have now vanished.
- [Dennis] In 1960, Allegro arrives in Jordan.
- With more than 60 sites
and treasures described in the scroll,
Allegro can't possibly search for all of them,
so he focuses on three main sites,
the Tomb of Zadok in Jerusalem,
Khirbet-el-Mird in the veil of Achor, and Qumran.
- The expedition begins at the Tomb of Zadok,
which is one of three ancient sepulchres
that stand together outside the walls of Jerusalem.
It's partly buried in dirt and rain
that has kinda washed down from the Mount of Olives.
- [Dennis] According to the scroll,
some of the treasure is hidden beneath a sitting area
at the edge of a garden near the tomb.
- Scraping the soil away, excavators find a hidden wall,
and a groove that might be an irrigation ditch,
and they get all excited,
thinking perhaps this is the garden mentioned in the scroll.
- So now they're encouraged,
so the team next looks for the sitting area,
and they look for any kind of benches or niche,
but they come up empty handed.
- [Dennis] With no luck after several weeks,
Allegro moves on to another possible site, Khirbet-el-Mird.
- Mird is an ancient fortress in the Judean desert,
believed to have been built by John Hyrcanus
in the second or first century BC,
and it's then rebuilt and expanded
by King Herod after 37 BC.
- There are two major clues that lead Allegro to the site.
One is in the very first entry of the scroll.
It's supposed to be in the fortress,
which is in the veil or valley of Achor,
40 qubits under the steps heading eastward.
Well, this is definitely a fortress in a valley,
and the timing of its construction seems to fit.
- [Dennis] Two weeks into their dig,
the team uncovers a flight of steps leading eastward,
down into the rock.
- It's basically an ancient well.
One of the team members is lowered on a rope into the well
and they use a metal detector along the walls and floor,
and there's still no sign of any treasure.
- They discover that the site
has actually been ransacked by vandals.
Marble pillars are scattered on the ground,
the mosaic floor has been hacked up to pieces.
In the end, they do find some amazing things,
a lot of Roman pottery, cisterns and passageways,
but zero gold, zero silver.
- [Dennis] Allegro's final dig
is in the area where the scroll was found, Qumran.
- In this area, he actually hears a local legend
that dates back to the year 1900.
At that time, girls from a nearby convent school
are taken on an outing to a monument here.
One girl climbs through a hole
and comes out with her pinafore full of gold coins.
- In the area where the girl's story supposedly takes place,
he does dig up an ancient cistern.
And in another location nearby, he finds a sealed cave
which has been sealed up for a long time.
It seems to date back about 2,000 years.
Inside, there are human remains.
Now these are important archeological finds,
but they're not a large pile of gold.
- [Dennis] Not surprisingly, John Allegro isn't the only one
scouring the desert for this treasure.
- In 1967, Vendyl Jones, a Baptist minister
turned amateur archeologist from Texas,
moves his family to Israel
and begins searching for the Copper Scroll treasures.
- [Dennis] 20 years into his hunt,
Jones finds compelling evidence
that he might be on the right track.
- This is one of the bilateral walls.
- Jones and his team unearth a small first century jug
wrapped in palm leaves,
which is speculated to hold the oil used
to anoint priests and kings in ancient Jerusalem.
- Then in 1992, Jones finds more than 600 pounds
of this unique reddish powder in a cave.
So, he has this powder analyzed
and it shows that the powder contains ingredients
for the incense which was used during rituals
of the Second Temple, which would make it
more than 2,000 years old.
- These two finds may prove something incredible,
that actual objects from the temple
did in fact make their way to Qumran,
and once they got here,
they were hidden away for safekeeping,
so maybe some of the treasure came along too.
- [Dennis] Unfortunately, Jones never finds the motherload.
- To this day,
no one has discovered the Copper Scroll treasure,
so it may still be out there.
- Even though the Copper Scroll treasures
are over 2,000 years old,
we've only known about them since 1952.
Treasure hunters haven't been searching for that long,
meaning there's plenty of places
that haven't been explored yet.
It feels like the next new discovery
could be right around the corner.
It's an ancient mystery, but it's a new one too.
(tense music)
- The Copper Scroll has inspired treasure hunters
ever since its discovery in 1952,
but another holy fortune has been famously sought
for much longer, over 2,000 years in fact.
It belongs to one of the Bible's most well-known rulers,
ancient Israel's King Solomon.
(tense music)
- Solomon is the son of David,
the legendary king who in his youth, according to the Bible,
kills the giant Goliath.
Most historians believe he really existed
and his reign probably begins around the year 970 BC.
- He's known for many things in the Bible,
including his writings and his wisdom,
and he's said to rule over a unified kingdom
of Israel and Judah,
that runs all the way from the Euphrates River in the north
to Egypt in the south.
- He's also very, very rich, according to the Bible.
In fact, in the book of 1 Kings,
Solomon is described as
the wealthiest king in existence who, quote,
"surpasses all the kings of the earth in riches."
- As a rich man, Solomon had a lot of nice things,
which the biblical texts go over in great detail.
- All of his drinking vessels and utensils are pure gold.
There isn't any silver because it's, quote,
"reckoned as nothing" in the time of Solomon.
He's got what you might call his day's version
of a fleet of fancy cars too.
He's got 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses.
He has ships, a palace, numerous construction projects,
and the most famous of which is the dazzling First Temple.
- [Dennis] But where does all this wealth come from?
- Back in Solomon's time,
there weren't just piles of gold bars in circulation.
If you had a lot of gold, you must have acquired it yourself
by way of large scale mining operations,
and because of this, for centuries,
people have been searching
for the legendary King Solomon's mines.
- [Dennis] While the Bible doesn't reveal
where the mines are,
it does give us another important detail.
- According to 1 Kings, quote,
"The weight of gold which Solomon received each year
was 666 talents."
- That's the equivalent of roughly 25 tons of gold
coming into his possession
during every year of Solomon's 40 year reign.
That would be 1,000 tons of gold. $65 billion or so.
(dramatic music)
- [Dennis] But searches in the area of Solomon's kingdom
have turned up empty.
- We know this area, we've studied the geology.
If Solomon did have access to a mine full of gold,
it has to be from beyond his borders.
- There is one story in the scriptures
that might give us a hint.
In 1 Kings, Solomon is allied with Hiram,
the Phoenician king of Tyre,
and his, quote, "Fleet of ships are," quote,
"at sea with the fleet of Hiram."
- The Phoenicians are the great seafarers
of the ancient world.
They live on the Mediterranean coast,
just north of modern Israel, in what is now Lebanon.
- So the fleets are at sea together,
and it's reported that once every three years,
they return carrying gold, silver, and ivory,
along with apes and baboons.
- [Dennis] So where is this cargo coming from?
- The passage says that Hiram sends his servants
with the fleet to a place called Ophir,
and they take 420 talents of gold
and bring them to King Solomon.
- [Dennis] Unfortunately, the exact location of Ophir
has been lost to time.
(dramatic music)
- Based on another Bible story from Solomon's reign,
a lot of people have speculated that Ophir
is in modern day Ethiopia.
- In the Book of Kings,
the Queen of Sheba comes to pay her respects to Solomon
and test his legendary wisdom.
She brings with her 120 talents of gold.
- The two become partners, some even say lovers,
and their kingdoms remain united.
- Some historians have speculated,
here's a queen of a region with a lot of gold,
she's close with Solomon,
perhaps through trade agreements,
she's the source of his gold.
- Now, we're not 100% sure where her homeland is located,
but Roman historian Josephus calls Sheba
a Queen of Ethiopia.
- And Ethiopia has gold.
Even today, the country has large reserves of gold
and precious metals.
In Ethiopia's Northern Highlands, for instance,
the gold seams lie really very close to the surface.
- But Ethiopia is just one
of dozens of proposed locations for Ophir.
Other historians have placed it in the Indies, Ceylon,
Southern Arabia, Armenia, all over the place.
The problem is we really don't know
because we haven't found any tablet or sign
that just openly says, "Welcome to Ophir."
- [Dennis] But this hasn't stopped
some of the most famous explorers in history
from trying to find it.
- Christopher Columbus is among those
who go looking for Ophir.
We know from his writings, that he studied the Bible
and other ancient sources to try to figure out its location.
- Columbus travels west in 1492,
and he ultimately makes four voyages to the Americas.
He believes he finds Ophir on an island he calls Espanola,
later changed to his Hispaniola,
which is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
- [Dennis] Upon his arrival,
Columbus is greeted by the Arawak people.
- Although the Arawak tribe's people he encounters
don't wear much gold,
it becomes clear that there is gold on the island.
One native presents gold leaf, some have gold nuggets,
another has a gold belt.
The Arawak are peaceful and generous
and offer their gold to Columbus.
- [Dennis] Encouraged, Columbus brings additional manpower
to the island, hoping to send immense amounts of gold
back to Spain.
- Tragically, Columbus brings devastation to the island
for no reason.
He's greatly overestimated
the amount of gold that there is there.
The items that the Arawak people offered him
turn out to be the product of many years of accumulation.
- When it becomes clear he's made a mistake,
Columbus returns to Spain, but he's not discouraged.
He simply thinks he's been looking in the wrong place.
- In 1502, Ferdinand and Isabella give him another chance
to retrieve the gold,
and after a fourth and final journey across the sea,
Columbus claims to find the source of King Solomon's wealth
in Central America.
- [Dennis] But with no solid proof,
his discovery is hotly debated.
- Even at the time, some people are convinced
Columbus is just making this claim in desperation,
so they keep looking elsewhere.
(tense music)
- [Dennis] The search for the legendary gold mines
continues for centuries,
and in 1865, German explorer Karl Mauch
sets his sights on a place
no one has targeted before, Southern Africa.
- Mauch explorers with hunter Henry Hartley,
and on their journey, the travelers are offered
small quantities of gold in trade,
so they think they're on the right track.
In 1868, Mauch publicizes the existence of gold deposits
on the banks of the Tati River.
- They cross into the country of Zimbabwe,
where they come upon the ruins of an ancient city
called Great Zimbabwe.
Mauch mistakenly assumes they're at the ruins of Ophir.
He claims the city's wood beams are Lebanese cedar,
and even claims that Great Zimbabwe is modeled
after King Solomon's palace.
- Before the ruins are later proven to be
of entirely African origin,
a book about Mauch's journey is published in London in 1868.
It creates a gold rush in South Africa.
- [Dennis] Searches for the gold mines continue for years,
then in 1935, one archeologist announces
he knows why no one has been able to find them.
- He believes that the source of Solomon's great wealth
probably isn't gold at all.
It's something else.
- [Dennis] The search for the legendary
gold mines of King Solomon
has enticed and frustrated treasure seekers
for over 2,000 years.
Then in the 1930s,
American rabbi and archeologist, Nelson Glueck,
shares his theory.
He believes the reason why the treasure has never been found
is because everyone's looking for the wrong element.
- Now in antiquity,
there's a metal that's more valuable than gold.
The metal that everyone would much prefer to have is copper.
- Copper is a big commodity in ancient times.
You can build with it, you can farm with it,
you can make weapons out of it.
It confers power and wealth on whoever controls it.
It's like oil in the modern world.
- In fact, the Bible specifically mentions
copper mining a few different times.
In Deuteronomy, Israel is described as
a land out of whose hills you can mine copper.
In the Book of Job, it describes the smelting of copper
and mining operations in detail.
- Glueck comes to Israel all the way from Cincinnati, Ohio.
He starts his search 90 miles south of Jerusalem,
in the Arava Desert.
- [Dennis] When Glueck arrives in March of 1934,
he locates an ancient mining complex
that supports his theory.
- All strewn about are piles of black slag,
which are chunks of material leftover
from the smelting process of extracting copper from ore,
and the slag is thousands of years old.
- In the course of his exploration of the mining site,
Glueck claims to have determined
several periods of occupation there,
and he believes the first period
is during the time of Solomon, around the 10th century BC,
and it's within the borders of his kingdom.
- In a 1944 article
entitled "On the Trail of King Solomon's Mines,"
he announces that he has, in fact, found the famous mines.
- At the time,
many archeologists hotly contest Glueck's findings.
The primary belief among academics
is that King Solomon simply wasn't as big a deal
as the Bible makes him out to be.
He was more of a small scale chieftain
who wouldn't have been capable of organizing
such a large scale mining operation.
- They think that the only advanced civilization nearby
that could have pulled off such a large mining industry,
is the Egyptians.
As a result,
Glueck is discredited in scholarly circles.
- [Dennis] But a discovery in 2013
by University of Tel Aviv archeologist Erez Ben-Yosef
in Israel's Timna Valley,
proves Glueck might have been on the right track.
- This area, known as Slaves Hill,
is dotted with copper mines and smelting camps.
The evidence of a huge mining operation
is everywhere at Timna.
Hand dug tunnels snake through the hills
and the ground is cratered like a lunar landscape.
You can still see the green strands of copper in the rocks,
and there are mountains of slag and charcoal
from thousands of mines.
Some of them are as deep as 230 feet into the ground.
- Much like with Glueck's discovery,
archeologists have always assumed
this mining was also being done by the Egyptians.
- [Dennis] But Ben-Yosef disagrees,
so in 2016, he brings in his own team to look for proof.
- Ben-Yosef's dig turns up clothing, food waste,
and excrement from livestock.
Now these things can be radiocarbon dated,
and when the results come back from the lab,
they totally shock the archeological community.
The site most definitely dates to the 10th century BC.
- This means the mining camp's not Egyptian.
Its peak was during the time
we believe to be Solomon's reign.
This is definite proof that there was a highly advanced
and productive copper mine in the region,
and it certainly was making someone rich.
- [Dennis] Could that someone be King Solomon?
- The mines could have belonged to Solomon,
or they might have been operated
by a nearby nomadic kingdom, the Edomites.
Edom is an ancient land bordering Israel
in what is now southwestern Jordan,
between the Gulf of Aqaba and the Dead Sea.
- The Edomites are closely related to the Israelites,
but despite their lineage,
the two factions are frequently at war.
- But even if these mines belong to the Edomites,
there's a chance that Solomon was reaping the benefits.
According to the Bible, Solomon's father, King David,
had actually conquered the Edomites
and placed garrisons all over their territory.
- Maybe David's reason
for putting garrisons out in this remote desert area
is to tax the lucrative copper production.
- [Dennis] One of Solomon's construction projects
could provide further proof.
(dramatic music)
- In 1 King's, Solomon builds a port
near the modern city of Eilat,
which is in Edomite territory.
According to 2 Chronicles, he already had a port at Joppa.
Why would he need another one down here,
which was much larger than the first?
Perhaps to transport all the valuable copper
which was coming out of this mine.
- And of course, this could also explain
all the gold coming Solomon's way.
If you've got tons of copper and a port full of ships,
all the gold your heart desires is just a trade away.
Copper goes out, gold comes in,
and suddenly you're in the history books
as the world's richest man.
- Whether apocryphal or real, the lure of such wealth
is likely to inspire future generations of treasure hunters,
with each new discovery unearthing something surprising
about our ancient past.
- The Bible is not the only Holy Book
that describes riches beyond compare.
Two Hindu texts tell the story of incredible fortunes
created by a magical gem.
- You don't have to mine the treasure or trade for it.
It's magically created, as if from thin air,
by an artifact known as the Syamantaka gem.
- The gem originally belongs to Surya,
the Hindu God of the Sun, who wears it around his neck.
One day, according to the story,
Satrajit, a nobleman and devotee of Surya,
is praying when he sees the God before him.
The Sun God is in an indistinct and fiery shape,
so Satrajit asks him
if he can take a less blinding appearance.
Surya removes the Syamantaka gem from around his neck
and reveals his true form.
- Surya is short in stature,
with a body like burnished copper, and reddish eyes.
Satrajit offers his adorations, his devotions,
and the Sun God grants him a wish.
- [Dennis] Satrajit wishes for the jewel itself.
- This gem can produce vast amounts of wealth.
It simply appears,
so it's something like a wealth generator.
- Something like 170 pounds of gold every day,
which is the equivalent
of about $5 million every single day.
- The Syamantaka gem is also believed to offer protection,
preventing calamities like floods,
droughts, earthquakes, and famines.
Wherever it remains, is a land of peace and prosperity.
- [Dennis] But, there's a catch.
- Some Hindu experts claim
that the jewel seems to amplify karma.
It only brings gold and good fortune
to those who are pure of heart.
Because of that, it can only be safely worn
by a God or a woman.
So a vain and power-hungry man
may suffer terrible consequences.
- Satrajit becomes incredibly wealthy thanks to the gem,
but one day, Satrajit's brother, Prasena,
takes the jewel and wears it around his neck,
proudly displaying the wealth of his family.
While riding his horse through the forest,
he's attacked by a lion and killed.
- [Dennis] This may be the first fatality
at the hands of the gem, but it won't be the last.
- Eventually, the gem finds its way back
to Satrajit's possession.
However, Satrajit is now a target
for others who have greed for this gem and its properties,
and he is attacked by three wicked robbers
who kill him and take the gem for themselves.
- Various Hindu texts, including the Mahabharata,
describe a series of the gem's owners after Satrajit.
It passes to Karna, then Arjuna, then Yudhisthira.
Several of these folks are also killed.
All of the people described so far,
are thought to be mythical characters.
The Mahabharata is full of magic and gods,
and these ancient Indian kings that historically,
we don't believe necessarily existed.
Or if they did, we have no proof of where and when,
until we get to Yudhisthira's grand nephew,
who the Mahabharata says inherits his kingdom
after he dies, along with the Syamantaka gem.
His name is Parikshit.
- Parikshit was an actual person
who lived around the 9th century BC.
He's been traced to that era
by Indian historian Hem Raychaudhuri.
- So now we have an actual historical king
who is said to have inherited
this fantastic Syamantaka gem.
- [Dennis] Unfortunately, some believe King Parikshit
also falls victim to the dark side of the gem's powers.
- Parikshit is a vain and power-hungry ruler.
According to the story, he has the audacity
to disrespect a holy man named Shamika,
by tossing a snake at him while he's meditating.
(tense music)
This proves he is unpure of heart
and invokes the gem's curse.
In an act of karmic revenge,
Parikshit dies from a snake bite and his son takes over.
(tense music)
- From there, the gem is much easier to track.
It passes down from king to king.
Some are conquered, some are killed.
Periodically, the gem may not be mentioned
for a few generations, but it continues to resurface
through Indian royal families.
- One of the more interesting stories
is that of King Porus.
He's said to possess the gem when in 326 BC,
his armies come up against Alexander the Great.
Porus loses.
But Alexander makes him the governor
of all his same original territories,
plus gives him a whole bunch more.
Now, not a lot of people come away richer
after losing a battle to Alexander the Great.
Maybe there is something to the legend of the gem.
- Ultimately, Porus was assassinated
by one of Alexander's generals
who is motivated by greed for the Syamantaka gem.
- And that's it, the Syamantaka gem goes missing.
We don't have any records that say
what happens to it after that, at least for 2,300 years.
(dramatic music)
- [Dennis] According to Hindu legends,
a source of infinite wealth known as the Syamantaka gem
is passed down through Indian rulers for thousands of years.
- After it's rumored to be in the hands of King Porus
in the 320s BC, we don't find any more mentions
of a particular owner of the Syamantaka gem.
- [Dennis] That is until 2009,
when a pair of researchers claim to have rediscovered it,
hiding in plain sight.
- Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe
published "Secrets of the World's Undiscovered Treasures,"
in which they say that the Syamantaka gem
has indeed survived into modern times.
- They posit that the reason
everyone thought it was lost to history
was actually simply because
it had begun going by a different name.
They think the Syamantaka gem
is now being called the Kohinoor Diamond.
- [Nicola Denzey Lewis] The Kohinoor
is one of the largest cut diamonds in history.
Its name means mountain of light in Persian,
and it weighs a whopping 105.6 carrots.
- According to the Fanthorpes,
they've uncovered Sanskrit records that date the Kohinoor
back over 5,000 years,
when it was originally known as Syamantaka.
Their histories certainly have some parallels.
- [Dennis] Like the Syamantaka,
the Kohinoor has also bestowed incredible wealth
to its owners.
- The Kohinoor diamond first appears
in the reign of the mogul emperor Shah Jahan.
Shah Jahan is best known as the creator of the Taj Mahal.
He also had a beautiful throne constructed for himself,
called the Peacock Throne.
The Peacock Throne is made to look like a peacock,
with its tail feathers extended,
and its head was formed by the Kohinoor diamond.
(dramatic music)
- The final cost of the throne
is said to be nearly four times as much as the Taj Mahal.
- Shah Jahan is said to be the wealthiest man in the world
during his rule,
with an empire that brings in 220 million rupees per year.
There's no accurate way to convert that into today's money,
but it's a staggering amount for the time.
(dramatic music)
- In addition to his fabulous throne and lavish palaces,
he has 50 million rupees worth of jewelry.
- [Dennis] But like the Syamantaka,
the Kohinoor is also believed to be cursed.
- When Deli is attacked by the Persian Nader Shah in 1739,
the Peacock Throne and the Kohinoor are seized.
Nader Shah is eventually assassinated,
stabbed to death by 15 co-conspirators.
- Again, it passes through the hands of various kings
until it reaches the Sikh empire in 1813,
where Maharaja Ranjit Singh
captures it from the Durrani dynasty.
- Singh may actually experience the worst fate
of all the gem's holders.
His entire ruling family is dismantled.
After his death in 1839,
his son is dethroned and imprisoned within four months.
His grandson rules only for a year
before dying at the age of 19.
- To believers, this is another sign
that the Kohinoor and the Syamantaka are one and the same.
In Hindu myth, only a God or a woman
can wear the Syamantaka with impunity,
and trouble comes calling for rulers who seize the jewel.
- [Dennis] By 1843, the kingdom and the Kohinoor
are held by the only surviving male heir,
5-year-old Duleep Singh.
- Duleep Singh is the final Maharaja of the Sikh empire.
By the time he's 10 years old,
the empire has been completely dismantled by the British.
The British force Duleep to sign an amendment
in which he renounces any claim to sovereignty
over his empire.
- Even more interestingly, this document specifically says
that he has to give up the Kohinoor.
It's such a powerful and prestigious gem,
that Queen Victoria wants it for herself.
- Queen Victoria wears this Kohinoor diamond
initially as a broach.
After Queen Victoria,
this gem then passes into the crown jewels collection,
where it's added to a crown
that is worn by the queen mother, mother of Elizabeth II.
- [Dennis] To this day,
the diamond is only allowed to be worn
by female members of the royal family.
- This seems related to the superstition
that the Syamantaka gem can only be worn safely by a woman.
It was very specifically left out of
King Charles' recent coronation ceremony, for instance.
It remains to be seen
who will be the next to where the jewel.
- [Dennis] Until then, the Kohinoor can be viewed,
along with the rest of the crown jewels,
in the Tower of London.
- There are still a lot of unknowns out there.
Hopefully, someday, someone can definitely prove
whether the Kohinoor is really the Syamantaka gem.
(tense music)
- Astonishing treasures with remarkable histories.
Perhaps someday, someone will be lucky enough
to unlock all their secrets.
I'm Dennis Quaid, and thanks for watching "Holy Marvels."