X marks the spot on Cocos Island
2012-08-14 09:11
An expedition to find a legendary treasure estimated to be worth £160 million said to be hidden somewhere on Costa Rica's Cocos Island is set to start later this year, Wanderlust reports.
Located 350 miles off the coast of Costa Rica, Cocos Island has been earmarked as the location where the "Treasure of Lima" is buried. An inventory for the hidden stash lists 113 gold religious statues, 200 chests of jewels, 273 swords with jewelled hilts, 1,000 diamonds, 150 chalices, solid gold crowns, a life-sized Virgin Mary, and hundreds of silver and gold bars.
A team of researchers led by British engineer Shaun Whitehead will scour the island to uncover the lost stash. A team of 15 other researchers from the University of Costa Rica and the Senckenberg Institute (a German-based natural history research organisation) will be accompanying Shaun Whitehead on the expedition.
The expedition will begin in November and has been scheduled to last for ten days. Its sole mission will not just be to discover treasure. Mr Whitehead has assured officials that he will also be carrying out detailed archaeological, geological and ecological research on the uninhabited island, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The buried treasure of gold and jewels was stolen by Captain William Thompson in 1820 after he was originally instructed to deliver it to Mexico from Peru. The Captain was eventually apprehended and to save his own life made a deal to show his captors where he had hidden the treasure. However, he managed to evade his captors and fled in to the island's interior so the treasure has remained lost ever since.
