05x01 - Montezuma's Lost Treasure

[bunniefuu]

Tonight, an Aztec king's
glittering treasure.

Its whereabouts, unknown.

Montezuma had this big treasure.

Some of the most
valuable jewels.

Gold, silver.

The value of that is
almost immeasurable.

It must be in the hundreds
of billions of dollars.

It's inspired a 500-year
search that spans continents.

Spanish explorers
started searching for it

and were really willing to
do anything to get to it.

Now, we uncover the top
theories behind a fortune

that vanished into thin air.

Someone's got it,
someone's hiding it.

And he believes
that that map is a map

to show where Montezuma's
hidden gold is contained.

And even today, treasure
hunters are looking

for this lost pyramid with
this gold treasure inside it.

What really happened to
Montezuma's lost treasure

and where is it today?

November 1519, Tenochtitlan.

Aztec King Montezuma
has spent 16 years

building the strongest
nation in Mesoamerica.

Montezuma II is the
ninth Aztec emperor.

He was a great warrior.

He was very much respected.

His m*llitary units had
conquered large sections

of Mesoamerica.

He was emperor when the Aztec
Empire was at its cultural

and geographic peak.

It was comprised
of 500 city-states

and close to 6 million people.

And at the center of this empire
was the gleaming white city

of Tenochtitlan,
modern Mexico City.

This was a time when the
Aztec Empire stretched

as far as present-day
Honduras and Guatemala.

Like any conqueror,
Montezuma plunders treasure

from the lands he captures.

He was looting from
these other states

all kinds of treasures,
gold bars and masks,

turquoise, jade,
other precious stones.

And they kept them
there at Tenochtitlan.

In the Aztec world,
nothing is valued like gold.

Among Aztecs, gold was
seen as almost a divine item.

It had a connection to divinity.

In fact, it was essentially
called the excrement

of the gods.

This means this is
what comes from the gods,

and in the sense as they're
digesting their power

and turning it
into a gift for us,

a gift of beauty, a
gift of great color,

a gift associated with the sun.

We don't know exactly how
much wealth, how much treasure,

how much gold Montezuma had.

We know it was there.

It was represented
in people's clothing.

It was represented in the art.

Estimations are a guess

but do go as high
as the billions.

But just as
Montezuma reaches the height

of his power,

a thr*at appears at
the edge of his empire.

After 1492,

following the landing
by Christopher Columbus

in what is today The Bahamas,

the Spaniards
established colonies

throughout the
Western Hemisphere.

In the 20 years or so
after the establishment

of Spanish colonies,

the Spaniards were
interested in finding gold,

but there was very little
of it in the Caribbean.

But at the same time,

the Spaniards begin to hear
stories from the mainland

of untold riches just
over the horizon.

Gold is such a rare
commodity in Europe.

It is extremely valuable.

So it makes sense that
as soon as Columbus

and other Spanish explorers
started to discover that

this existed in what they
called the New World,

they started searching for it

and were really willing to
do anything to get to it.

And they start to send
expeditionary trips

into the east coast
of what's now Mexico,

trying to contact this empire.

And that's where Hernan
Cortes enters the story.

Cortes had been an
administrator on Cuba

for seven years,

and he had heard stories
of the great Aztec Empire

and the great city
of Tenochtitlan

and the great treasure
that they had.

In February of 1519,

Cortes set sail from Cuba with
over 500 men, 100 sailors,

and 11 ships straight for
the Yucatan Peninsula.

He makes his way
around the peninsula

and eventually makes
landfall at what becomes

the important port of Veracruz.

They landed and then
Cortes b*rned the ships.

And he told his men, "You're
not going back to Cuba.

You are going forward with me
to conquer the Aztec Empire."

Nine months later, they arrived

into the Aztec capital.

Imagine the scene.

The Spaniards are coming
into Tenochtitlan.

They are so overwhelmed
by the size, the beauty,

the organization, the wealth,

that later, Hernan Cortes
writes about this city

and he says, "Some of us
had been to Constantinople,

some to Paris,

and yet we'd never seen
anything as fabulous as this."

So Cortes shows
up at Tenochtitlan,

and Montezuma welcomes him.

He's glad to see Cortes
and the conquistadors,

and he thinks that they
are returning gods.

The Aztecs had a prophecy of
a god named Quetzalcoatl.

And Quetzalcoatl
was a bearded man,

and he was to come
on a certain year.

And that was, by coincidence,

the exact same year that

Cortes was marching
on to Tenochtitlan.

And Cortes was also a
bearded Spanish conquistador.

Unbelievably, Cortes marches
right into Tenochtitlan.

Cortes and his men
are allowed to stay

on the royal palace grounds.

When Cortes and his men
are given accommodations

in the palace,

they notice a fresh wall

in the palace,
freshly bricked up.

And so, their curiosity piqued,

break down that wall and find
a hidden room of treasure.

Treasure, the
conquistadors intuit,

that Montezuma did
not want them to see.

With his eyes on the gold,

Cortes takes Montezuma prisoner
just days after arriving.

Hernan Cortes orders his men
to basically rush Montezuma.

They essentially put
him under house arrest.

And this endures
for seven months,

where Montezuma is
effectively a puppet emperor.

Cortes was essentially
giving Montezuma orders.

We now have descriptions
of the Spaniards

forcing the Aztec
smiths to take the gold

and to smelt it down.

The Spanish are just
interested in the gold.

They don't care if it's
a bracelet or a mask.

They just want the gold.

And so, they begin to
melt it down into bars

and ingots with the intent
of sending back to Spain.

The Spanish have a
huge amount of gold,

not just the gold
that they've gotten

from the treasure room,

but all of the gold that
they have accumulated

from the point where
they landed in Veracruz.

By June of 1520,

the Aztec people reach
a breaking point.

One day, Montezuma is
addressing the crowd,

and they've now really
had it with the Spanish.

And they feel that
their king is a puppet,

and they k*ll him.

The Spanish then retreat
inside of the palace.

There's about 500
conquistadors that are there.

So they are outnumbered by
tens and tens of thousands

of Aztec warriors.

Hernan Cortes and other
Spaniards now realize,

they gotta go.

This is not tenable anymore
for them to be in Tenochtitlan.

On June 30th, 1520,

Cortes makes the faithful
decision to flee Tenochtitlan.

Many historians estimate
that Hernan Cortes

and his men had gathered
up to eight tons of gold.

So they had to figure
out a way to get

at least most of that
gold out of Tenochtitlan

when they escaped.

So initially,
Cortes gives direction

to take a specific
amount of treasure,

but then after that,
he tells his men

that they can take whatever
else they can carry.

This is a seminal example
of eyes being too big

for your stomach.

Getting all
that gold out of Tenochtitlan

will be no easy feat.

The Aztec capital of
Tenochtitlan was like a Venice

of the Americas.

It was a city that
was built on an island

in the middle of this
shallow lake of Lake Texcoco.

It's a maze of
canals and causeways.

So, they basically
have to get boats.

Some people are gonna
swim next to the boats.

It's a very complex
process of getting out,

a very dangerous one.

Nightfall comes, and
they begin their escape.

Now, the escape is going well,

but then they're spotted.



upon Cortes's 500 conquistadors.

The Spanish remember what
follows as The Night of Sorrows.

You have these conquistadors
who are not light on their feet.

They're weighed down with gold,

many of them falling
into the water.

Ultimately, only Cortes
and about 50 conquistadors

and indigenous allies
made it out alive.

Hundreds of lives are lost,

and according to some,

so is the gold.

So on The Night of Sorrows,

many of the Spanish
soldiers who d*ed,

sunk to the bottom of the
waters of Tenochtitlan

along with the gold they
were trying to smuggle out.

A discovery
more than 450 years later

adds weight to the theory
that Montezuma's treasure

was lost in battle, sunk
in the Aztec canals.

In 1981, president of Mexico,

Miguel Lopez Portillo, ordered
the building of a new bank

near the Alameda, the great
park in downtown Mexico City.

The construction worker,
who's digging about 15 feet

under the ground,
happens upon a gold bar.

He is absolutely amazed
by what he has found.

What it ends up being is
a nearly 23 karat gold bar,



The story makes
headlines around the world.

Archeologists say the
location matches up

to one of Tenochtitlan's
ancient canals.

And one of Cortes's men
may have also left a clue

in his memoirs.

The shape and proportion
of the bar match

almost exactly to what one
of Cortes's lieutenants

described as the process
by which they melted down,

with the help of the Aztecs,
their gold, their masks,

their jewelry, into these
very distinctive gold bars,



Then, nearly 40 years later,

new technology may tell
even more of the story.

In 2020, this gold
bar is subjected

to fluorescent X-ray
chemical analysis.

Based on the
composition of the gold,

as analyzed by the chemists,
they know that this is gold

that comes from central Mexico,

and it was mined by the Aztecs.

They also were able to date
the gold bar to 1519, 1520,

exactly the time Cortes
was in Tenochtitlan.

Experts believe
it's likely the gold bar

is part of Montezuma's treasure.

But if so, where's
the rest of it?

Finding that one gold
bar in that one spot

implied that there must've
been a chaotic situation

in which the gold was
basically spread out

all over what would've
been Tenochtitlan.

People were sinking
under the water,

people were getting
k*lled everywhere.

So the implication is that
there may be more gold

sitting under Mexico City.

But we're dealing with 500
years worth of construction

on top of what was initially

an ancient city,

in an island, in the
middle of a lake.

Who knows what
remains to be found?

June 30th, 1520.

In a bloody battle
between the Aztecs

and Spanish conquistadors
in what's now Mexico City,

most of the Spanish
soldiers are k*lled,

and Montezuma's gold
is supposedly dropped

in the city's canals,

but Hernan Cortes survives.

Cortes is eventually
able to escape back

to another city, Tlaxcala,

where he spends months
rebuilding his army.

And it's with this
enlarged army,

hundreds more conquistadors,

thousands more
Mesoamerican allies,

that he determines to
return, for the last time,

to take Tenochtitlan.

When the Spaniards come
into the Aztec capital,

they're accompanied by over


Tlaxcala is a kingdom

that the Aztecs have never
been able to defeat.

And so, they're the
enemies of the Aztec.

During a nearly
three-month siege

during which Cortes is able
to cut off the causeways,

isolating Tenochtitlan,

the Aztecs finally give up.

And when Cortes and his
Tlaxcalan allies march

into the city,
they are ruthless.

The Aztec Empire,

which had existed for
over a hundred years,

is over.

Cortes is
determined to take back any gold

that wasn't lost during
his previous escape.

But whatever gold
Cortes does find,

he can't keep all of it.

One fifth of all gold
and treasure that was taken

by conquistadors was to go
back to Spain and to the king.

It was a, basically, 20% tax
on all the treasure they found.

After coming to the New World,

Spain takes unprecedented
quantities of gold

from the indigenous
peoples of the Americas.

It's thought that
about 181 tons of gold

was brought back to Spain,

and that the value of that
would've been around $4 billion.

It made the king of
Spain incredibly wealthy,

and Spain at that time was
the most powerful country

in Europe.

They had tremendous
amounts of money.

The Spanish established
a series of ports

in the Caribbean and
along the Gulf of Mexico

for gathering all of
the Aztec treasure

and then sending
it back to Spain

in massive fleets of ships.

Much of the gold
shipped from Mexico to Spain

left from the port of Veracruz.

Could Montezuma's treasure
have taken the same route?

Even though we know that
most Aztec gold was melted down

into bars, some artifacts
did make it back to Spain.

The great painter Albrecht
Durer describes in one

of his diary entries,
seeing treasures coming

from Montezuma's world
as sent by Cortes.

He describes a great,
circular, silver object

as well as a golden sun
that is now being shown

to the royal families of Europe.


fisherman Raul Hurtado

is working near Veracruz

when he makes an
astonishing discovery.

It's a small gold ingot,

which Hurtado doesn't
think too much of

at this particular
moment in time.

It's just a trinket.

But he at least has it
in the back of his mind

for a while that, where
there's one piece of treasure,

there might be more.

So about a year later,

Raul Hurtado returns to the
same spot looking for more gold.

This time, he discovers


items in the water,

which amounted to about


which would've been about
$300,000 in today's money.

Raul's
discovery becomes known as

"Las Joyas del Pescador",
or "The Fisherman's Jewels".

Tellingly, some of the
items are stamped with a C,

C for Carlos.

King Charles V, king of Spain,

emperor of the
Holy Roman Empire,

at the time Cortes
was in the New World.

Some of the gold was
marked with Carlos V's stamp

because he was owed a 20%
tax on what was collected.

So, to make things easier
and more clear cut,

simply mark his
portion with his name.

So a lot of people
believe that this was a sign

that this was Montezuma's
gold being returned to Spain.

But if so,

how might the fisherman's gold
have ended up in the water?

Well, if it was on a boat
making its way to Spain,

it's very likely that at
least a few of those boats

would've sunk or some of it
would've fallen off the boats.

It's not likely that
every single piece

of gold would've made it
from Mexico back to Spain.

Today, these ingots

and the rest of The Fisherman's
Jewels are exhibited

in a museum in Veracruz.

But is there proof
that this gold was part

of Montezuma's stolen
treasure en route for Spain?

It's a great story,

but what it would need is the
type of verification we have

in other cases, where we have
X-ray or chemical analysis,

and that has yet
to be conducted.

So the mystery remains unsolved

until that kind of
testing is done.

While some historians believe

Cortes likely got the
bulk of Montezuma's gold,

others suspect that
might not be true.

The Spanish records
tell us that they took

and plundered every piece
of gold they could find.

But one of the other
theories about what happened

to Montezuma's gold
is quite interesting.

What if they stashed
away the gold

before the Spanish
could actually steal it?

They understood that Cortes
and the Spanish were coming

for one thing, gold.

So there is a scenario in
which Montezuma decided,

"I need to get this gold
out of Tenochtitlan."

A man named
John Carmichael believed

that's exactly what happened.

The explorer's
story was recorded

in a 20th century
American newspaper.

John Carmichael was a
British officer who was working

in British Honduras in


So, when he was there,
he was told a story

by a father and son,
local indigenous family,

about gold that was
stashed by the Aztecs

in a temple in
Guatemala called Tikal.

The local legend is that
Montezuma ordered the gold

to be stashed there after
the Spanish showed up.

And it's not crazy to think
that Montezuma would've sent

some of the gold that he had
south to what's now Guatemala,

because he must've
understood on some level

that Hernan Cortes
was dangerous.

Intrigued with the story,

Carmichael convinces
the father and son

to guide him to the site.

It was an arduous
three-day journey,

but they finally
arrived at Tikal.

Tikal is a fabulous Mayan city,

but it was already ruins
at the time of the Aztecs.

So Tikal itself had very
steep, high pyramids,

but the jungle had taken
over this entire city.

It was completely deserted.

When they arrive in
front of the temple,

they realized, oh my gosh,
this temple was sealed shut.

Perhaps intentionally
sealed so shut,

they would've needed modern
equipment to break it open,

which they did not have.

So they had to leave and return
with that modern equipment

to do it.

Before Carmichael can arrange

another expedition, he
gets transferred overseas.

Carmichael basically accepts
that he's just gonna have

to let this one go.

So he returns to England,
he gets busy with life.

But more than 20 years later,

a chance discovery inspires him

to pick up the search once more.

He gets an assignment in his job

and returns to Mexico City.

And while he's there,
he goes to a library,

and he's just reading up on
some local kind of legends.

He says that he
happens upon an account

from a priest that says
that Aztec gold was stashed

at a temple in Tikal.

Almost a confirmation
of what the father

and son had told him


And that sets him off on
another obsessive mission

to go back and find that gold.

In 1903, Carmichael embarks

on his second expedition.

Well, he tries to find the
father and son unsuccessfully.

He has to rely on his old notes,

but he's determined
to find this temple.

And he makes his way
back to Guatemala,

back into the jungle, to go
back to the temple in Tikal.

Carmichael leaves
with his new guides,

but they return several weeks
later without Carmichael

and said that he d*ed of
malaria while they were trying

to find the temple.

And one story is that the
guides that were taking him

had no choice but to bury his
body on the side of a road.

Carmichael may be gone,

but that's not the
end of his quest.

And then some years
go by and in 1926,

a British archeologist
named Thomas Gann then takes

up the quest again.

And he tries to follow
Carmichael's expedition

to find this pyramid with
the lost treasure in it,

but he also fails.

That the Victorian
explorers didn't find any gold

in Guatemala doesn't prove that
it was never brought there.

in Guatemala doesn't prove that
it was never brought there.

Could it have been there?
Could it have been moved?

We don't know.

After 500 years,

the quest for Montezuma's
lost treasure has turned up

some incredible finds,

but hardly the entire hoard
of gold rumored to exist.

Is that because there's
more to the story

of Spain's Aztec conquest
than we've been told?

Could it be that no one's
found Montezuma's lost treasure

because everyone's looking
in the wrong place?

When the Aztecs came
to central Mexico

and founded the capital city
of Tenochtitlan in 1325,

it was the culmination
of an epic journey.

The story goes, about
the Aztecs' origins,

are very... murky.

The official tale made by
the Aztecs is that they came

from a place called Aztlan.

Aztlan is the place of
origin of the Aztec people.

The story being that a
priest received in a dream,

a message from the
deity who told him,

"You need to move out of Aztlan

and go south to
find a new homeland.

You will finally see my image
as a giant eagle on a cactus,

blooming in the
middle of a lake.

"And that is to where
your home should be."

The sign happens to be on a
small island in Lake Texcoco,

and that is where the legend
of Tenochtitlan begins.

But the Aztecs continued
to have a deep connection

to Aztlan.

It's in their art, it's in
the stories of their migration,

and the written codices.

But where was Aztlan?

Scholars believe the Aztec
language may be a clue.

The language that the
Aztecs speak is Nahuatl.

It is a similar
language to the Paiutes

and to the Zunis and the Hopis.

So, here we have
a linguistic link

between the Aztecs

and tribes that are
in northern Arizona

and in southern Utah.

This suggests that Aztlan is
somewhere in northern Mexico

or in the southwest
United States.

Aztlan is something that the
Aztecs were obsessed about,

and that obsession eventually
led one of their emperors,

Montezuma I, to send a
large expedition north

to try to find it.

Is it possible
that after the Spanish

invaded Mexico
searching for gold,

Montezuma II enacted
a similar plan?

It's a story that has
been passed down orally

from generation to generation.

The idea is that seven
caravans were sent out

from Tenochtitlan to the north,

and each of these caravans had
a considerable amount of gold.

There is some evidence
to suggest that

the Aztecs did make it as
far as present-day Arizona.

We found some evidence in
the form of cocoa beans,

in the form of a rubber
ball that was used

in an Aztec ball game,
that suggests that maybe

some may have made
it that far north.

After the long journey,

a legend says the Aztecs
supposedly placed the treasure

in a cave.

Half of the Aztecs
stayed with the treasure

while the other half
returned to Tenochtitlan.

And the hope was that they
would eventually go back north

to the hidden treasure and
bring it back to Tenochtitlan,

but that wasn't to happen.

And therefore, the remaining
people up in northern Arizona,

they were just integrated
into the local population

and ultimately, the
treasures were forgotten.



a story emerges of a
prospector named Jake Johnson.

There really is only
one written version

of Jake Johnson's story,

and that comes from a miner's
newspaper printed in 1903.

In 1902,

Johnson is alone in
the Arizona desert

when he breaks his leg.

And he's then
nursed back to health

by a Paiute named Rabbit Tail,

and his wife helps him
recover from his broken leg.

And in the process
of healing, Rabbit Tail

and Johnson would get into
conversations over a fire,

and Rabbit Tail tells
him this story about gold

that made its way
north by Aztecs

and was there in Arizona.

But then comes the bombshell.

Rabbit Tail tells Johnson that

the tribe still knows
where the gold is.

And, of course, Johnson
becomes extremely interested

and begs Rabbit Tail to
take him and show him.

Rabbit Tail says no initially,
that it was a secret,

and he would not
reveal it to him.

Then, as the story goes,

Johnson gets his opportunity.

While Jake Johnson
is recuperating,

a mountain lion
comes into their camp

and is about to att*ck
Rabbit Tail's wife.

Johnson has a r*fle with him.

And he has essentially
saved her life.

And Johnson, realizing
how grateful Rabbit Tail is,

asks him, "Can you please
show me where the gold is?"

So Rabbit Tail agrees.

But he blindfolds Johnson,

so Johnson would not
see where the gold was.

And so, they enter
this series of caves.

They climb through with
their blindfolds on.

They take him to a secret place,

and then they take
the blindfold off.

And he sees this fantastic gold
treasure that is being kept

in the cave by the Paiutes.

So he gives him a couple minutes

to gather as much
gold as possible.

Johnson puts the blindfold
back on and they leave.

After Rabbit Tail is on
his way, greed kicks in,

and Johnson tries to
relocate the cave,

but he never finds it.

Johnson is able to sell
his gold for about $15,000.

It's the equivalent of
about $450,000 today.

It's quite a treasure in 1902.

But as for the
location of this treasure cave,

it remains a mystery.

For well over a hundred years,

legends have persisted
of Montezuma's gold

being sent thousands
of miles north.

There are a lot of stories
about how Montezuma's gold

might've made its way
to northern Mexico

to the southern United States,

states like Utah,
California, or Arizona.

You can't necessarily
ignore a story

because it's a legend.

There's oftentimes a kernel
of truth in the story

if it's been passed
down for so many years

between so many people.

One enduring tale involves

an American prospector from
Utah named Freddy Crystal.

In the early 1900s, Freddy
Crystal was in Mexico,

and there was a monastery that

was being demolished
at the time.

Supposedly, Crystal
is able to gain access

to this ancient monastery,

and he finds old documents,

documents dating back
to the time of Cortes.

Supposedly, some of which even
describe how Cortes tortured

some of the priests
of Tenochtitlan

after he retook the city,

asking them where
the treasure was.

And then,
according to the legend,

he makes an even
bigger discovery.

He finds a map that
looks like the stump

of a tree with branches
hanging out of it

that contains petroglyphs.

And to him, he feels like
he recognizes this map.

The landscape draws
Crystal's attention.

Freddy Crystal recognizes a
mountain range on these maps

as a mountain range
near Kanab, Utah,

which is where he's from.

Crystal is convinced that
this map is going to lead him

to treasure, a treasure
that has a connection

that goes all the way back
to Cortes and Montezuma.

So he then goes up to
Kanab, Utah with his map,

and he finds three
caves that are unusual.

And he thinks that these
caves are the location

of Montezuma's treasure.

So he gets some of the local
townspeople to help him,

and they go into these caves,

and they figure that the Aztecs
have walled up the treasure

by creating piles of
rocks and plaster.

And behind these walls,
will be the treasure.

They break it down.

Freddy goes inside,
and what does he find?

And there, behind that
little wall is a tunnel

into the mountain.

Freddy thinks
he's hit the jackpot.

Freddy Crystal and his friends,

they're extremely excited.

They spend weeks tunneling
and tearing down walls

inside these tunnels.

They find some chambers.

They find some
other kind of clues.

They find, in the
caves, chisel marks.

They find some animal bones
and things like that,

but there's no treasure at all.

So after months of digging,
after months of frustration,

eventually, most of the town
just gives up and returns home.

And eventually, Freddy
Crystal decides that, well,

he's going to give up his
quest for the lost treasure.

And he leaves town, and
he's never seen again.

But that Freddy
Crystal never found

any of the rumored
treasure has had no effect

in terms of dissuading
future treasure hunters.

Every year, every season,
there is a new batch

of treasure hunters.

There are returning
treasure hunters who think

that they have finally
found the missing piece

that will ultimately lead them
to Montezuma's missing treasure.

that will ultimately lead them
to Montezuma's missing treasure.

And they will probably continue
for many years to come.

When Montezuma
became king in 1502,

the Aztecs had been ruling
what's now central Mexico

for over 130 years.

We know that Montezuma
enjoyed a lavish lifestyle

that would've been the envy
of any monarch of Europe

or sultan of the Middle East.

Montezuma was living large.

He had his own zoo, which
had a plethora of birds.

He had jaguars, other
kinds of wild animals.

As the story goes, in
the Palace of Axayacatl

was Montezuma's treasure room
where he stored all manner

of jewels, gold, silver,

such that when the conquistadors
said that they saw it,

they were simply dumbfounded.

Cortes and his
men likely raided that room

just before escaping on
The Night of Sorrows.

There's really no way of knowing

how much gold the Spanish got.

We know that they took
some portion of it.

Did the Aztecs hide caches of
gold in multiple locations?

And how much of the
gold was hidden?

How much of the gold may
have been left behind?

Is it possible
the Aztecs hid the treasure

in another part of the
palace before Cortes

and the Spanish returned
to conquer the city?

Uncovering the palace's
remains to find the proof

is a challenge.

After retaking the city,

Cortes and his man began a
process of dismantling it.

All of this progress,
all of this technology,

all of this human achievement
brought down to rubble.

They begin erecting
new structures.

They begin to drain the lake.

And thus, begins a process
that leads us from Tenochtitlan

to present-day Mexico City.

But then, in


In 2017, construction on
the Nacional Monte de Piedad,

a historic pawn
shop in Mexico City,

reveals, 10 feet down, a
basalt floor dated back

to the time of Montezuma.

Experts looked at the
pattern of the stones,

and because of the
way they were laid,

believe it was some kind
of patio or outdoor space.

Maybe even a courtyard

from the Palace of Axayacatl.

As the archeologists
continued to dig,

they uncover an adjacent
room that may provide a clue.

They find, embedded in
the corner of the room,

two large Aztec stones
with carvings on them.

One of the stones
depicted Quetzalcoatl,

who was the serpent god

and the creator of the
world and humanity.

And the other was a carving
of a feather headdress.

Archeologists confirm

only a king's home
would have such

intricately carved stones,
concluding this courtyard

and room were sections
of the long lost

Palace of Axayacatl.

The same palace Cortes and
his men were brought to

when they arrived
in Tenochtitlan.

This may have been the same
stone floor that Cortes

and his men would
have walked across

upon first meeting Montezuma.

The palace is where
Cortes and his men lived,

where Montezuma might
have put the treasures

that have been lost.

But the truth is,
there's no hard evidence

that this is where
it was all stored.

Could there still be

an underground vault nearby
filled with treasure

Cortes and his men didn't take?

Is it possible that
there is a room full

of gold somewhere

beneath Mexico City, today?

It's a fantastic thought.

But if the treasure is still
in downtown Mexico City,

which has cathedrals and
huge buildings around it,

they're not gonna be
tearing that up to find

some hidden room full of gold.

To me, the most interesting
part of the search

for Montezuma's lost
treasure is that to find it,

we have to not only peel
back layers of city,

but we have to go back
through an entire change

in the historical
context of the world.

After 500 years, the legends
about what really happened

to Montezuma's treasure live on.

Did it disappear entirely
after the Spanish conquest?

Or was it hidden somewhere
from future threats,

just waiting to be found?

I'm Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching
"History's Greatest Mysteries".