We’ve all heard of Area 51 but what about its equivalents around the world? Here are ten of the most intriguing, all but three of which are still in operation.

10. Station 13, South Africa (Closed)

In the grasslands outside Johannesburg, near the not-quite-rural Bapsfontein, Station 13 was—allegedly—operational from the 1960s to the mid-1980s. But there’s not a lot of info to go on. In fact, it all seems to come from one man: Greg Roberts.

In 1966, he says, he stumbled upon the base while looking for the Baker-Nunn satellite tracking station, where he was due for a job interview. Finding himself on a dirt road to a gate with a STRICTLY NO ADMITTANCE sign, a 4-meter-high trailer, and, 6-8 km away, a huge radio dish tucked out of view in a dip, he realized he’d found the Bapsfontein tracking station, or Station 13—about which he’d only heard rumors. Not being the sort to follow orders from signs, he let himself in and entered the trailer. There he was met by “a young man in US military uniform,” who, after Roberts explained, let him use the phone to call the staff at Baker-Nunn. Other uniformed men were there too, along with “racks of electronic equipment” for radio satellite tracking. It was clear from documents lying around that the station belonged to the United States Air Force, and was run by Pan American Airways as part of the Eastern Missile Test Range. It was also clear what satellites they were tracking—though, of course, when Roberts asked, the officer would neither confirm nor deny. Phone call made, he was on his way, with orders not to venture further down the road.

And that was that—until 1982. Eager to distance itself from apartheid, the US shut down its South African bases and sold off a load of equipment. Roberts himself missed the auction, what he heard from friends left him wondering what went on at Station 13. For one thing, there was equipment covering a frequency only ever (officially) used for the 1961-65 RANGER craft, which NASA crashed into the moon. Also, the dish he’d seen the top of was 26 meters across—like the one at Hartebeesthoek used for deep space tracking. “What was such a big dish used for, apart from lunar missions?” Roberts wonders, “Was it used for deep space missions?” Answers have not been forthcoming.

9. QinetiQ, United Kingdom

The Hampshire headquarters of defense contractor QinetiQ are, according to the British Earth and Aerial Mysteries Society (BEAMS), built on top of a UFO base. In the levels below it, they say, researchers are working on intergalactic defense and futuristic flight development. In their 109-page report, they call these hidden levels “deep underground military bases”, or D.U.M.B.

Unfortunately, there’s not much concrete evidence—but some of it does involve concrete. Calling to mind the Nazca Lines, the layout of the roads leading up to the entrance resembles a Grey with arms outstretched. BEAMS calls it a Grey/Reptilian Hybrid and identifies it with Australian cave paintings. Furthermore, part of the building looks just like a flying saucer.

Other evidence includes the tight security on site, reports from alleged personnel, witnesses, and remote viewings, as well as QinetiQ’s involvement in mining coupled with the strange rumbling noises heard in Farnborough over the past 15 years. When approached for comment by The Daily Express, a QinetiQ spokesman said they were looking through the “very detailed dossier and working on a response”. But that was eight years ago, and they’re still keeping schtum—as is the Ministry of Defence, which said they “do not comment on UFO matters”.

8. Site 7, USSR/Kazakhstan (Closed)

The Soviet Union’s Sary Shagan facility was, according to the CIA, a testing range for experimental weapons. Specifically, it was focused on missiles, such as warheads containing metal balls. But rumors also suggest it was developing weaponized lasers… which might explain the UFO sighting at the base’s Site 7—but that would be a stretch.

In 1973, again according to the CIA, a member of Site 7 personnel saw “an unidentified sharp (bright) green circular object or mass in the sky.” It was hovering just above cloud level, they said, or where the clouds would have been if the sky wasn’t clear. “Within 10 to 15 seconds …, the green circle widened and … several green concentric circles formed around [it].” There was no sound. And minutes later it was gone.

Site 7 was, officially, Sary Shagan’s “warhead checkout unit”, so UFO interest may not be that surprising—assuming it wasn’t a laser. Still, the combination of experimental weapons and unexplained lights bears striking resemblance to Area 51. Even the location and climate are similar, being right by a lake in a desert, with clear skies most of the year.

 7. Port Wakefield Proof and Experimental Establishment, Australia

Port Wakefield is one of several large military facilities in Australia, a country heavily involved in nuclear testing. And while it’s not the largest (56 square kilometers compared to the Woomera Range’s 120,000), it is the most interesting. As the name suggests, it conducts experimental weapons testing and munitions proofing at the coast—specifically, “off a remote highway” near the northernmost tip of Gulf St Vincent, South Australia.

Officially, Port Wakefield serves the army, air force, and navy. But they’re testing some pretty weird weapons. Locals and passersby have reported strange bursts of light, flashing balls, and radio interference. One delivery driver said he loses contact with other drivers whenever approaching the site, adding: “There’s a lot that I don’t think people know about it.”

He may have been alluding to the Port Wakefield hitchhiker. Witnessed by numerous drivers, this spectral figure in air force clothes is said to haunt the highway to Adelaide. Sometimes he stands by the side of the road, other times right in the middle, forcing drivers to slam on the brakes. Whether or not he’s given a lift, though, he vanishes into thin air. One local businessman even claims to have followed him into the toilet at a gas station only to see him dissolve.

6. Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory

Diego Garcia lies just south of the equator, more than 2,000 kilometers from Sri Lanka. It has a long history of exploitation by Europeans, including as a French leper colony and, as recently as the 60s under the British Queen’s ownership, as a plantation forcing children to work. Nowadays, though, with the natives removed, it’s a joint UK/US military base complete with a deep water port and a runway the space shuttle could land on.

Naturally, its isolation gives rise to rumors. Perhaps the most outlandish, purporting to be from a whistleblower, is that it sits atop a D.U.M.B., a deep underground military base, for “Black Navy” projects like the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. Also human cloning. The alleged whistleblower claims to have been cloned twice in the 1980s, and that his “alters” as he calls them were “infused with his soul extracts”. One of them was sent to Mars while the other stayed on Earth, running assassination and abduction missions for its masters.

Well, anything’s possible. More credible, though, is the report from Stephen Walker, a USAF pilot stationed there at the height of the “War on Terror”. One week in 2005, he said, personnel were told to stay away from the “large, red, dilapidated hangar at the northern end of the airfield,” because the Navy was “conducting sensitive operations”. But it seemed to be empty throughout. At one point, they were even told to stay inside and away from the windows. The flightline was cleared and the base locked down to “protect an incoming classified aircraft”. Everyone complied and listened for a landing—“tires touching pavement, … disc brake rotors, or … brakes being applied”—but there was nothing, no sound whatsoever. As Walker put it, “there’s no quiet like the silence of a shutdown airfield on an atoll more than 2,000 miles away from the nearest sign of civilization.” He never found out what it was.

5. Orford Ness, United Kingdom (Closed)

Orford Ness on the coast of Suffolk, 160 km north-east of London, was once a major nuclear weapons lab. Nowadays, it’s a National Trust nature reserve—a protected marshland ecosystem amid the ruins of the base, giving a glimpse of Area 51’s ultimate future. When it was in operation, Orford Ness was home to a massive centrifuge for testing warhead casings, a hangar for captured Axis planes, and the enormous Cobra Mist over-the-horizon radar system. Although it’s not well known, it was just as important in WWII as the code-breaking Bletchley Park.

It was set up in 1913, ten years after the first manned flight, to research aircraft for warfare—all in top secret. And it stayed in operation for the next six decades, opening the Atomic Weapons Laboratory during the Cold War. Interestingly, given the other UK entry on this list, Orford Ness was part of a network that included a site in Farnborough. It’s also a short walk from Rendlesham Forest, the site of Britain’s most infamous UFO sightings. 

As in comparable facilities nowadays, research was compartmentalized. Scientists worked on one small piece of a larger weapon without knowing about all the others or even if the finished thing worked. Among the technologies they developed are night-flying instruments, means for taking off and landing on ships, the 5,400 kg ‘earthquake bomb’ (nicknamed “Tallboy”), and Britain’s first nuke, “Blue Danube”. But much remains secret today, and access to the site is still limited.

4. Znamensk, Russia

Better known by its original name Kasputin Yar, Znamensk was established in 1946 (just after the Second World War) and may be the longest running experimental weapons site on the planet. Like Area 51 and several others on this list, it’s situated in the desert—specifically, east of Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) in southern Russia.

Technologies developed here include ballistic missiles, orbital rockets, sounding rockets, and nukes. This is also where Laika the dog was launched into space from. Today, in addition to weapons testing and aerospace research, it’s the largest military training center in Russia. So it’s not quite as secretive as its equivalent in Nevada. But, like the United States, Russia rounded up all the Nazi scientists they could—and it was at Kasputin Yar they were put to work.

In 1953, the British photographed the base from a modified Canberra bomber, managing to land in Iran despite drawing fire from the Soviets. But the photos were blurry and useless. Later, with the help of Turkish radar engineers along the Black Sea border with Russia, the US constructed a massive antenna—as long as a football field—to observe the skies above the base. And what they saw was the development and testing of intercontinental ballistic missiles with a range of up to 2,500 nautical miles. 

3. Mount Yamantau, Russia

Known as “Russia’s Mount Everest”, Mount Yamantau in the Ural Mountains is said to host an underground base. And the government doesn’t deny it. In fact, the peak is officially designated a strategic site and, from what Putin has said in recent years about protecting nuclear command and control infrastructure from any threat, it seems an obvious location for the underground base he alludes to.

But it’s bigger than you’re probably thinking—at least according to rumor. Entombed under 3,000 feet of quartz, it’s said to be “as big as the Washington area inside the Beltway”, more than 1,000 square kilometers. That the quartz interferes with radio signals may be part of the point. Also for this reason, the complex is thought to be a bunker to keep top brass alive in the event of a nuclear war—similar to the United States’ Raven Rock Mountain Complex.

But its true purpose is shrouded in secrecy. Some say the nearby town of Mezhgorye, with its population of 17,000, is inhabited solely by Yamantau scientists all working on top-secret projects.

2. Lop Nur, China

In China it’s easy to keep things secret, at least from the people. Deep in the desert, hundreds of miles from any city in one of the most barren places in the entire country—the Uyghur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang—lies the site of Lop Nur. And not only is it still operational but, as recently as 2021, it appeared to be undergoing expansion. Satellite imagery from the time showed that around 12 new concrete buildings had sprung up around the isolated, three-mile runway.

Given the size of the landing strip, which only appeared in 2016, Lop Nur is assumed to be involved in testing the classified “space plane” and other off-world technologies. The construction of new buildings there may suggest a more permanent military presence, or it could just be housing for scientists. Either way, though, Lop Nur appears to be gearing up for more highly classified testing. In fact, the already massive runway may be expanding too—into an equilateral triangle allowing take-offs and landings in three directions.

There’s not much else to say about this one, but it’s location, activities, and secrecy (with diplomats refusing to comment on it) make Lop Nur a direct Chinese equivalent to Area 51.

1. Kongka La, India

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14PTajp9r00

Kongka La, or Kongka Pass, is a high mountain pass in the Himalayas near Ladakh. And it’s “a hotbed for unusual activities”: unexplained lights, equipment failures, flying saucers, etc. It’s also disputed territory, with the Chinese and Indian governments both insisting it’s theirs—sometimes violently, as in the 1950s and 60s. Civilians aren’t allowed there at all.

The case for there being an Area 51 in the region comes from Google Earth imagery, which, allegedly, once showed military buildings. If there is a base, though, it’s thought to be deep underground, taking advantage of Kongka La’s unique geology—the Earth’s crust here being deeper than anywhere else. Hence other pictures from Google purport to show “unidentified caves” that disappear and reappear sporadically.

Other reports come from ground level. For instance, there’s the team of geologists, who in 2004 saw “a robot-like creature, 4 feet tall and strolling on the mountain crest,” before it fled in response to their approach. The Indian military has also, apparently, seen strange goings-on—including, in 2012, a ribbon- or cloth-like object drifting in the sky” that couldn’t be detected on radar.

Conspiracy theories about the rich and famous are growing thick and fast by the day. If they’re not “dead”, they are members of some obscure cult or the Illuminati clan or they paid someone to “take out” a fellow celebrity. Others are rumored to be reincarnations. Some even remember their past lives. Some of these theories are crazier than others, as the entries on this list will prove.

Top 10 Mysterious People

10 Baby Bruce Lee

Since he was a little boy, Ryusei Imai has been rumored to be the reincarnation of the famous Chinese actor and kung fu master, Bruce Lee. The boy’s father has clearly been a lifelong fan and started showing his son Lee’s movies when he was only a year old. At the age of 3, Ryusei began developing his skill with nunchucks and at age 4, he started imitating Lee’s kung fu. From age of 5 he started looking lean and muscular and could almost perfectly mimic Lee’s complex martial arts moves, energetically emulating the movie star’s personal jeet kune do (translated into “The Way of the Intercepting Fist”) style.

His skill, discipline, and technique so impressed Dan Inosanto, a former a student of Bruce Lee himself, that he made the trip to Japan to personally take on Ryusei as his student. Together they visited Seattle where the little kung fu master displayed his nunchuck skills by Lee’s graveside. Watch little Baby Bruce Lee’s impressive moves in the video below.

9 Time Traveling Travolta

For $50,000, you can own an original 1860s-era photograph of who appears to be “a very young John Travolta.” Or at least, you could have.

In 2017, an antiques dealer made the purported 150-year-old photo of John Travolta available for purchase on the popular auction site eBay. Look closely at the image below and you’ll see for yourself the striking resemblance in both men’s eyes, hairline “and most importantly John’s very unique trademark CHIN.”

Travolta, a well-known Scientologist, would almost certainly have appreciated the “proof” of one of his past lives. Although the church of Scientology does not appear to have an official statement on time travel, it does, according to its official website, support the idea of reincarnation: “Today in Scientology, many people have certainty that they have lived lives prior to their current one … Past lives is not a dogma in Scientology, but generally Scientologists, during their auditing, experience a past life and then know for themselves that they have lived before.”

8 Carrot-topped Cadet

Despite the fact that Conan O’Brien flopped in a big way when taking over the Tonight Show from Jay Leno in June 2009, fans of the carrot-topped comedian are legion and loyal, holding fast to fond memories of the funny man’s late-night television show. In a much-publicized huff, O’Brien declined NBC’s offer to move The Tonight Show to a later slot and instead walked away and handed back the reins to Leno in January 2010.

His short tenure at the show still secured a hefty severance package so it’s little wonder that O’Brien flew under the radar for a while. With $34 million in his pocket, he could certainly afford to! Late in 2010, however, he returned to the small screen with a reincarnation of his famous Late Night With Conan O’Brien which ran from 1993 to 2009. His new show was not the only thing that got reincarnated, though. The man himself is the spitting image of Marshall Harvey Twitchell, who, back in the mid-1860s, served in the Union Army. Take a gander at the picture below and see for yourself how much O’Brien resembles the dapper-looking cadet.

7 Macaulay Putin

Yup, you read that right. Macaulay Culkin, the forever-young Home Alone star of the 90’s, looks just like a young Vladimir Putin. The same angelic face, the same floppy hair, and the same cupid bow. The similarities between the two do not end there, though.

In his 2018 documentary, The Most Powerful Man in the World, Fareed Zakaria describes Russian President Vladimir Putin as, yes, you guessed it, the most powerful man in the world. Similarly, because of his son’s enormous box office successes, Premiere magazine rated Kit Culkin one of the most powerful people in Hollywood back in 1993. Culkin is the first child actor to be paid $1m for his role in My Girl, as well as the second-youngest celebrity to host Saturday Night Live at the tender age of 11.

When he was around the same age, Putin’s teacher noted the following: “In the fifth grade, he still hadn’t found himself yet, but I could feel the potential, the energy and the character in him.“

When he was in the sixth grade, Putin decided it was time to “achieve something life.” His attitude towards his studies changed dramatically and he started to excel in school. His career rise was rapid, his journey to President of Russia happening almost overnight. Much like Culkin who told Maron he felt his father was “jealous” of him, because “everything he tried to do in his life, I excelled at before I was 10 years old”.

In December 2018, Culkin announced that he would legally change his name to “Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin” but after seeing the picture below, Macaulay Putin is perhaps more accurate.

6 Greta Thunberg

In November 2019, at the height of Greta Thunberg’s political career, the Twittersphere nearly imploded when a picture, taken in 1898, came to light. Released from the archives at the University of Washington, the creepy image clearly shows “Thunberg”, together with who appear to be her siblings, fetching water from a well in Dominion Creek, Yukon Territory. Even the braid is an exact match …

When the photo was posted online by Jack Strange, the uncanny resemblance between the girl in the picture and the modern-day Thunberg sparked thousands of Twitter users to joke that she might be a time traveler. The hosts of the talk show Your Morning also had a blast theorizing about the environmental activist’s time traveling capabilities and the possibility that she is from the future, here to deliver a dire warning. They further proposed that the image explains why Thunberg refuses to take a plane across the Atlantic and prefers to travel by boat; obviously, time travelers suffer from some kind of aversion to technology.

Top 10 Disturbing Tales Of Doppelgangers

5 Lawrence Lookalikes

In 2017 a 17-year-old model named Alexia Maier rose to fame in a rather unconventional way. Apparently, she looked scarily similar to actress Jennifer Lawrence. So similar, in fact, that she has even found herself surrounded by paparazzi.

Maier isn’t Jlaw’s only lookalike. The Hunger Games star is also the spitting image of the Egyptian actress Zubaida Tharwat, famous during the silver age of the silver screen. And when we say spitting image, we mean Spit. Ting. Image. Seriously. Right down to the eyeliner.

In reality though, the only thing these accomplished actresses have in common is their chosen profession. And even though we can’t call it a reincarnation, since Zubaida only died in 2016, the strong resemblance in the picture below is enough to make you do a double take. Or two.

4 Royal reincarnation

In 2013, one TV psychic’s claims made many people stand up and take notice. Not because, as is usually the case, it sounded bizarre but because it involved our all-time favorite royal, Lady Diana. Sharon Prasad, self-proclaimed psychic, shared in a documentary about the royal family that Prince George and Princess Diana share more than just a star sign.

“If we have look at the Cancer influence with Lady Diana this is really interesting because it shows a life-death connection.”

Yup. According to Prasad, Prince George is the reincarnation of his beloved grandmother. Not only because of the striking resemblance between the late Princess and Kate and William’s eldest son, but because of their shared interests and talents, like their mutual affection for dancing. Prince William apparently once told the press that his eldest son loves dancing just like his late mother did.

While you might wonder if these people have ever heard of genetics, the video below is still worth a watch.

3 Mata Hari the Material Girl

Madonna has been purported to be the reincarnation of various individuals. Most notably the woman known to the world as Mata Hari. Born in 1917 in the Netherlands, her real name was Margaretha Zelle. As a young woman she married a Dutch army officer and moved to Indonesia where she became a member of an Indonesian dance company. But Zelle only started drawing attention when she later relocated to Paris and worked as an artist’s model and exotic dancer.

“Promiscuous, flirtatious, and openly flaunting her body with a mystique that captivated both her audiences and the public, Mata Hari was an overnight success. The most celebrated segment of her act was her progressive shedding of clothing until she wore just a jeweled bra and some ornaments upon her arms and head.”?

Rather like Madonna during her Blonde Ambition tour, don’t you think?

But, apparently, Mata Hari was just one of many past lives lived by the Material Girl. Her affinity for Kaballah has led to an exploration of her previous incarnations. She was, it is said, a strong Jewish woman in these past lives but, as she wasn’t famous then, it would be difficult to historically validate them …

2 Isn’t it ironic?

Is Alanis Morissette the reincarnation of Sergei Prokofiev? Are the prolific musicians in fact the reincarnation of the same soul?

Sergei Prokofiev was the Russian composer, pianist and conductor behind the musical fairy tale Peter and the Wolf, which remains enormously popular today. He was regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century, playing the piano at age five and composing his first opera at age nine.

Alanis Morissette, of course, is the Canadian-born singer-songwriter behind Jagged Little Pill, the best-selling album of the 90s. Often described as an old soul, Morissette was playing the piano at age seven and, just like Prokofiev, writing songs by age nine.

Could they be one and the same soul?

Ironically, the singer has a twin brother, Wade Imre Morissette. He looks nothing like his sister nor Prokofiev, but does, however, bear a striking resemblance to Prokofiev’s second wife, Mira.

1 Queen of the people

“I was taught from a young age that many people would treat me as a second-class citizen because I was African-American and because I was female.” – Queen Latifah

Zora Neale Hurston (1891 – 1960) was an African American author and filmmaker born in Alabama. Her work mostly portrayed the struggles around slavery and segregation in the United States.

Dana Owens, now known as Queen Latifah, was born in 1970 in New Jersey. Her award-winning work as a singer, actress and music producer also revolves mostly around the African American experience in the United States.

Knowing this makes the image below all the more mind blowing. Not only does Zora Neale Hurston (on the left) look just like the famous Hollywood heavyweight in character for a movie, their respective lives have demonstrated great intelligence and creativity in portraying the lives and struggles faced by African-Americans throughout history. One cannot help but think they would have been great friends and mutual fans.

+ The Last President

In 1893 Ingerssol Lockwood wrote a book. That book was called The Travels and Adventures of Little Baron Trump and His Wonderful Dog Bulgar.

“Trump, an aristocratically wealthy young man living in Castle Trump, is the protagonist of Lockwood’s first two fictional novels, The Travels and Adventures of Little Baron Trump and His Wonderful Dog Bulgar and Baron Trump’s Marvelous Underground Journey. The little boy, who has an unending imagination and ‘a very active brain,’ is bored of the luxurious lifestyle he has grown so accustomed to. In a twist of fate, Trump visits Russia to embark on an extraordinary adventure that will shape the rest of his life.”

But it gets crazier, the sequel to the book was called The Last President, and here’s a snatch:

The story begins with a scene from a panicked New York City in early November, describing a “state of uproar” after the election of an enormously opposed outsider candidate.

“The entire East Side is in a state of uproar,” police officers shouted through the streets, warning city folk to stay indoors for the night. “Mobs of vast size are organizing under the lead of anarchists and socialists, and threaten to plunder and despoil the houses of the rich who have wronged and oppressed them for so many years.”

“The Fifth Avenue Hotel will be the first to feel the fury of the mob,” the novel continues, citing an address in New York City where Trump Tower now stands. “Would the troops be in time to save it?”^[1]

It’s so strikingly similar to our reality that it can’t be true . . . right? But it is! Oh . . . and the illustrations from the book look like President Trump’s son too! This has led the self-described “autists” of /pol/ on the mostly-unmoderated Social Media site 4Chan along with their compadres on thedonald.win, the largest President Trump fan community, to declare that Barron, the youngest son of the 45th president, is a multi-dimensional time traveller. That could certainly explain a lot.

Top 10 People Who Claimed To Be Time Travelers

Treasure. There is a world of imagination in just that one word. It conjures up a hint of possibility and a whole lot of excitement.

Treasure hunting is a popular activity around the world, especially in locations such as Oak Island, Nova Scotia which is rumored to be the place one might find the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail, supposedly buried there by the Knights Templar. Numerous attempts have been made to locate these items, as well as pirate treasure and even Shakespearean manuscripts thought to also be hidden somewhere on the island. None of these attempts have yielded anything other than miscellaneous artifacts, but that hasn’t dampened the excitement of what might lie just around another corner.

On this list are some more long-lost treasures around the world and the places they could possibly be discovered in.

10 Legendary Treasures Still Waiting To Be Found

10 The Florentine Diamond

The stunning light-yellow Florentine Diamond was once part of the Crown Jewels of Austria and the pride of the Medici Family. Its worth in modern times has been estimated to be around $20 million, even though it was once sold for a mere 2 francs by a soldier who took it off the lifeless body of Charles the Bold in 1477.

The diamond has nine sharply-cut sides, originated in India and is said to have been cut by Flemish jeweller Lodewyk van Bercken. After the diamond was sold for glass by the aforementioned soldier, it passed through many hands before it ended up being displayed in Vienna as part of the Austrian Crown Jewels.

The stone was stolen in October 1918 along with Queen Elizabeth’s diamond crown, rings, necklaces and more valuable gems. The trail of the Florentine diamond ended in 1919 after a lawyer, Bruno Steiner, who was entrusted to keep the stone safe disappeared with it. When Steiner was eventually tracked down in 1923, he denied having the diamond saying that Charles I of Austria had sold it to regain the throne. He died in 1930 without the diamond ever having been found.

Rumors abounded that the diamond had been smuggled into South America, while yet more rumors had it that the gem had been re-cut or even cut into smaller diamonds and sold on the international diamond market. These days, there is no telling where the diamond could be, but the search is still on in the USA for a hopeful few who are chasing the dream of being the discoverer of this rare diamond.

9 Jesse James’ gold

Jesse James was not a nice guy. He and his brother Frank committed horrible acts against unarmed Union soldiers, and participated in the Centralia Massacre in 1864. When the Civil War ended the brothers became common criminals, robbing stagecoaches, trains and even banks across the Midwest. Jesse had a target on his back in the form of a reward for his capture and one of his own gang members eventually took him out with a bullet, hoping to cash in on the reward.

Despite all the awful things Jesse James did in life, he became somewhat of a heroic figure after his death with many ‘fans’ comparing him to Robin Hood. This was despite a complete lack of evidence that he ever shared his loot with the less fortunate.

It is believed that Jesse buried some of what he stole in the Keechi Hills located in the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma. Locals and foreigners alike have for years tried to decipher symbols and other clues carved into the rocks in the area, supposedly by Jesse and Frank, hoping that it would lead them to gold. So far, no luck, but treasure hunters are not giving up hope just yet.

8 Sao Joao shipwreck

On 8 June 1552, the Portuguese ship São João was wrecked along the coastline of present-day Port St. Johns in what is today known as the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The ship met its end near the mouth of the Umzimvubu River and 100 of the 600 people on board drowned. The remaining 500, led by Manual de Souza e Sepulveda remained where they washed up for a couple of days before starting a gruelling trek north, towards Mozambique. However, only 21 people, of which 14 were slaves, survived the journey to Delagoa Bay.

The ship was laden with the richest cargo at the time it went down, worth a million in gold. It was crammed full of pepper, precious stones, Chinese blue and white porcelain, carpets and more. Before starting the doomed journey to Mozambique, some of the slaves allegedly took some of the treasures from the ship. The money chests, however, went under with the wreck and treasure hunters are still looking for it. Some claimed to have found some porcelain and Carnelian beads along the shore, while one treasure hunter even claimed to have found a gold pendant.

The bulk of the treasure is seemingly still underwater, just out of reach of those who want to find it the most.

7 East River treasure

The HMS Hussar, a 28-gun British warship, was on its way to Rhode Island via the East River in November 1780. On board, according to several whisperings, was gold to the value of at least $4 million. The Hussar sank in the tidal strait between Astoria and Wards Island, also known as Hell Gate. Survivors of the incident later claimed that the ‘treasure’ had been delivered to its intended destination before the ship sank.

This did not deter the British government, who tried to find the wreck on three separate occasions without success. When they finally gave up, it was the turn of treasure hunters who braved the dark waters to try and uncover the gold. Nothing has come of anyone’s search other than pottery and other small artifacts and the wreck has yet to be discovered, with some experts believing that the remains of the ship has been incorporated as landfill in the Bronx. Some treasure seekers believe the gold may also be part of the landfill now.

6 Varyagin’s valuable cargo

Russia might not be the first location that comes to mind when the topic of treasure hunting arises, but there are some valuable lost items in this country that treasure hunters wouldn’t mind discovering. This includes the Library of Ivan The Terrible, Napoleon’s gold which is believed to have been sunk in a lake in the western part of the Smolensk Region and Kolchak’s Gold which today would be worth over $280 million.

On October 7, 1906 cargo liner Varyagin sank off the coast of Ussuri Bay in what is known today as the Primorye Territory. It wasn’t a ‘big deal’ at the time, but the owner of the ship, Aleksei Semyonovich Varyagin drew a lot of attention to himself and the incident when he asked the authorities to compensate him for a ‘valuable cargo’ that had been lost. The amount he requested was 60,000 rubles. The governor at the time, refused and it was only in 1913 that the former captain of the Varyagin tried to launch an expedition to the site of the sinking. His efforts were unsuccessful and subsequent efforts to find the ‘valuable cargo’ were hindered first by the start of the First World War and then the 1917 Revolution.

However, those who are brave at heart are not discouraged from seeking out the treasure for themselves. The prize might just turn out to be a windfall amounting to several million rubles.

5 The many lost treasures of Hawaii

Hawaii is a spectacular holiday destination, with the added bonus of a horde of buried treasure sites. According to several legends, that is. One of the most exciting rumors have it that the burial chamber of King Kamehameha, who died in 1819, contains warrior robes made from the feathers of now-extinct birds, and heaps of valuable gems. Treasure hunters have yet to find this burial chamber with some believing it might be hidden away in a rainforest cave.

During the battle of Kepaniwai in 1790, King Kamehameha’s army murdered most of the Maui warriors and dumped their bodies at Iwao Stream, not far from Wailuku. Treasure enthusiasts believe that relics from this battle can still be found hidden in the area.

In addition to this, many believe that over $5 million’s worth of gold and silver was buried near Palemano Point by English pirate Captain Cavendish, and that Captain James Cook’s treasures and weapons were buried on Kauai after he was killed by natives in 1778.

4 Nadir Shah’s loot

The allure of finding treasure hasn’t escaped exotic India.

In 1739, Persian invader Nadir Shah invaded Delhi with an army of 50,000 men. After massacring at least 30,000 people, his army looted the place and ended up with a treasure caravan of 150 miles long. It is here that the story gets a bit murky. Some versions have it that Nadir was murdered on his way back to Persia that same year, while others say he was murdered in 1747. Either way, the person who killed him is alleged to be Ahmad Shah who made off with the bulk of Nadir’s stolen treasures. Before Ahmad’s death he apparently buried these treasures in the tunnels of the Hindu Kush Mountains.

The Koh-I-Noor diamond was among the loot and has been added to the British Crown Jewels. The rest of it remains up for grabs, so to speak.

3 The Kruger Millions

During the South African War, things started to look really bad for the Boers in South Africa. The president at the time, Paul Kruger, was forced into exile in Europe after South Africa’s annexation to the British Empire, to avoid capture. Leaving Pretoria on 29 May 1900, he travelled by train to Machadodorp on 4 June after which he crossed the border to Mozambique and got on a ship to Europe. He died during exile in Geneva, Switzerland.

What was discovered after he left, is that Kruger allegedly hid away a cache of gold bars and coins to the value of $500 million in the Blue River area in what is today known as the Mpumalanga province. This rumor started in 1900 when British governor, Lord Alfred Milner, revealed that gold had been taken from the South African Mint and National Bank. While Kruger was still in Machadodorp, a train was reportedly loaded to the brim with these bars and coins and sent on its way to Mozambique. However, it never arrived there and between Machadodorp and the Mozambiquan border, the gold seemingly vanished into thin air.

Local treasure hunters believe that the gold had been stashed away on a farm between Sabie and Waterval Boven. Hundreds of searches have been carried out in and around the area, but the treasure has yet to be discovered.

Update: In February 2021 several news articles stated that some of the Kruger Millions have been discovered after Kruger ponds were found in a Swiss vault. They have since been acquired by the South African Mint.

2 The Jacobite Gold of Loch Arkaig

In Lochaber, Scotland lies the beautiful Loch Arkaig. Unlike at Loch Ness, those who travel here don’t keep a look out for a fabled sea serpent. Instead, some try their hand at finding the lost Jacobite gold believed to still be hidden in the area.

The Jacobite gold was a large amount of gold coins sent along by Spain to finance the Jacobite rising in Scotland in 1745. Spain pledged to send at least 400,000 livres each month to sustain the rebel army and the first lot was dispatched in 1745. It had hardly landed on the west coast of Scotland however when it was captured by Clan Mackay. In April the following year a shipment of 1,200,000 livres was unloaded at Loch nan Uamh, Arisaig. In total, seven caskets of Spanish gold made it to Scotland, but by the time the last casket was offloaded, the Jacobite fight was over and their army scattered.

Six of the seven caskets were brought to Loch Arkaig and buried. MacPherson of Cluny was in control of the money and is believed to have used some of it to fund ultimately failed attempts at another uprising. All of the gold has not been accounted for however. There were multiple claims and accusations recorded between the Highland chiefs and exiled Jacobites regarding the treasure, but the fate of the rest of the gold has not been established.

1 Stolen European treasures

Almost 76 years ago a S.S. officer using the pseudonym ‘Michaelis’ wrote constantly in a journal. His writings outlined Nazi commander Heinrich Himmler’s plans to hide stolen European ‘treasures.’ The diary was kept away from the public and was in the possession of a Masonic lodge for decades after the war.

In 2019 the lodge gifted the diary to a Polish foundation named Silesian Bridge. The foundation in turn, confirmed that same year that they had received the journal as ‘an apology for WWII.’ At the time, it was yet to be determined whether the journal was authentic, but a map included with it caused great excitement. The map indicated the location of a well on the Hochberg Palace grounds where the Nazis purportedly hid their stolen treasures. These include around 63,000 artworks and cultural artifacts stolen from Polish Jews.

The diary further listed another 10 sites where it is believed the Nazis buried gold, gems, paintings and religious artifacts. The gold at the bottom of the abovementioned well alone is purported to be worth more than $1 billion.

10 Lost Treasures And The Awesome Ways We’re Getting Them Back

History is full of faked deaths and re-appearances of people long thought dead, but there are also a small number of people who did most likely die, but become the center of theories that claim they live. This list looks at ten of the most well know deaths that have fueled the fires in the minds of conspiracy theorists.

Tupac, was a rapper who was killed in a drive-by shooting. The murder remains unsolved, inspiring many theories over who was responsible. In addition, many fans insisted that Tupac was still alive. The rumors were partly fueled by Tupac’s release of eight albums in the decade after his death. In a strange coincidence, the first of those albums included the song “Blasphemy” on which Tupac raps “Brother’s getting shot and coming back resurrected.”

The offbeat comedian, best known for playing Latka on the TV series Taxi, died from lung cancer at age 35. Partly because he had kept his illness a secret almost until the day he died, many fans thought the death announcement had been staged as an elaborate prank. Kaufman’s frequent collaborator, fellow comedian Bob Zmuda, admitted that he and Kaufman had discussed faking his death and he seemed “obsessed with the idea.” However, in a 1999 interview Zmuda declared, “Andy Kaufman is dead. He’s not in some truck stop with Elvis.” Just in case, Kaufman’s friends held a “Welcome Home Andy” party on the 20th anniversary of his death. The guest of honor failed to appear.

There have been thousands of sightings of the King since his death. At the funeral, Elvis’ father Vernon allegedly acknowledged that the corpse in the coffin did not look like his son. He said that Elvis was “upstairs,” adding, “We had to show the people something.” Presley was also said to have been fascinated with The Passover Plot by Hugh Schoenfield, who speculated that Jesus’ resurrection was faked with a drug that temporarily made him appear dead. Presley, no stranger to prescription drugs, may have had the knowledge to pull off a similar scheme.

In March of 1971, Morrison, lead singer of the Doors, moved to Paris to write poetry. On Friday, July 2, Morrison left his apartment, telling his girlfriend, Pamela Courson, that he was going to see a movie. On Monday, Courson called Elektra Records representative Bill Siddons and told him to come to Paris. When he arrived, Siddons found Courson, a sealed coffin and a death certificate saying that Morrison had died from a heart attack. Exactly what had happened that weekend remained a mystery. Despite the claim on the death certificate, rumors suggested that an overdose of drugs or alcohol had killed Morrison. Unconfirmed reports that the singer had been spotted boarding a plane that weekend fueled speculation that he was still alive. Even Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek said in a 1973 interview, “I don’t know to this day how the man died and in fact I don’t even know if he’s dead. Nobody ever saw Jim Morrison’s body … it was a sealed coffin. So who knows, who knows how Jim died.”

Hitler and his bride of one day, Eva Braun, committed suicide in the bunker under the Reich Chancellery on April 30, 1945. The next day, German radio announced that the fuehrer had died leading his troops in battle. The Soviet news service Tass picked up the report but added that “by spreading the news of Hitler’s death, the German Fascists apparently wish to give Hitler the means of leaving the stage and going underground.” During the Potsdam Conference in July, Joseph Stalin insisted that Hitler had escaped to either Spain or Argentina. In fact, by this time the Russians possessed the remains of Hitler and Braun, having recovered them from the bomb crater they had been buried in. When Soviet autopsy reports on the pair were released in 1968, they showed that the bodies had been positively identified as Hitler and Braun from dental records. Despite this evidence, alleged sightings of Hitler continued.

The youngest daughter of Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia, was shot with the rest of the royal family by a Communist firing squad. Over the years, several women declared themselves to be Anastasia. The most famous was Anna Anderson, who began making her claims after being rescued from a Berlin canal in 1920. She later lost a lawsuit in which she sought to be recognized as a Romanov heir, married Jack Manahan and settled in Virginia, where she died in 1984. A decade after her death, DNA testing established that Anna Anderson Manahan was not related to the Romanovs but instead came from a Polish family, the Schanzowskis, as her detractors had long claimed.

In 1948, a 100-year-old Oklahoma man named J. Frank Dalton announced that he was Jesse James, who officially had been killed by Robert Ford 66 years earlier. Dalton convinced writer Robert Ruark and Rudy Turilli, an acknowledged expert on James, of his claims. The man allegedly killed in James’ stead was another outlaw, Charlie Bigelow. Reportedly, when James’ mother was first shown the body of the man Ford had shot, she blurted out, ‘No, gentlemen, that is not my son.’ However, in 1995, the body buried in Jesse James’ grave was exhumed for DNA testing. The results confirmed that it was the famed outlaw.

Towards the end of his reign, the Russian tsar expressed to his family and close friends a desire to give up his throne. During an inspection tour of the Crimea in the winter of 1825, Alexander died suddenly of either malaria or pneumonia. He was buried in a closed casket. The hazy circumstances of his death fed rumors that Alexander had faked his death and secretly abdicated. Feodor Kuzmich, a wandering holy man who died in Siberia in 1864, was rumored to have been the former emperor. Further enhancing the mystery around the Tsar, in 1925 the Soviets opened Alexander’s tomb and did not find a body.

The dauphin, heir to the throne of France, died in prison of tuberculosis during the French Revolution. Even before the death was announced, rumors circulated that royalist sympathizers had freed him and replaced him with a double. Madame Simon, the wife of the jailer, asserted that Louis had been smuggled out of prison in a basket of dirty laundry and replaced by a child with rickets. Eventually, over a hundred royal pretenders claimed his identity, a situation Mark Twain satirized in the duke and “dolphin” sections of Huckleberry Finn.

Obviously this is a complicated item as many people (over 1 billion in fact) believe that Jesus rose from the dead. But we are not talking about the resurrection aspect of Christ – we are talking about what happened later. According to Christianity, Jesus ascended into heaven after his resurrection – and was henceforth gone from the world. But some people believe that he continued to live for a longer period of time and, believe it or not, went to America and taught the people there a new gospel. It is, of course, the Mormons who believe this. There are even some people who believe that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and lived a long life bearing many children.