The successful completion of explorer Columbus’s fourth voyage across the ocean and his adventures in search of treasure in the Americas sparked a global treasure-hunting trend.
Many legends and myths about treasure are not unfounded. What is referred to as treasure may indeed exist, as for various reasons, it has been buried deep within the earth by its owners. Unable to resist the allure of wealth, many people are always seeking ways to acquire these treasures.
A massive treasure consisting of 1,600 tons of gold is believed to have quietly rested for hundreds of years at the bottom of a lake. Although many desire it, no one has dared to seek the answer to the mystery of this fortune. What is the real reason?
This is not an unfounded rumor; there are significant reasons behind it. The 1,600 tons of gold at the bottom of Lake Baikal are rare treasures collected by Tsar Nicholas II. Naturally, these treasures are just a small part of his immense wealth.
Under Lake Baikal lies 1,600 tons of gold from Tsar Nicholas II.
The reason Tsar Nicholas II chose to sink it beneath the lake ultimately was due to the changing times.
At that time, the proletariat class led by Lenin had sparked numerous struggles. Faced with a precarious throne and constant threats to his life, the Tsar quickly sought ways to escape.
Despite fleeing, the Tsar still wanted to take his treasures with him. However, due to their large size and incredible weight, he was unable to carry them and certainly did not want to sell them cheaply to others. At that moment, destroying and burying them was the best option Tsar Nicholas II could think of.
To ensure no one could find this 1,600 tons of gold, Tsar Nicholas II threw it into the bottomless Lake Baikal. Experts, through research on related documents, have estimated the total value could reach up to 70 billion USD.
Many people have always eyed this colossal sum of money, but ultimately everyone has given up. This is truly strange. Even after the Titanic sank, people still conducted salvage operations for a small portion of the wealth, except that the ship was too large to be salvaged.
Compared to the Titanic, the wealth left by the Tsar is much greater, all of it being treasures. Just determining the location, salvaging it would undoubtedly yield an astonishing amount of gold and silver.
But all of this is merely in imagination; Lake Baikal is truly deep and bottomless. This is no joke. The area located in the southeastern part of Siberia is not a place where anyone wants to stay for long.
This “silent land” was once a marshy area where the ancestors of the Mongol people lived, named based on geographical features. Later, when the Russians arrived, they transliterated it to “Siberia.”
Lake Baikal is extremely deep, and it is easy to understand why no one dares to conduct salvage operations here.
Moreover, Lake Baikal is incredibly vast, feeling no different from an ocean, with a total capacity of up to 23.6 trillion cubic meters, and its deepest point is 1,637 meters. For this reason, it has been dubbed the deepest freshwater lake in the world and the largest freshwater lake in Asia and Europe.
The lake was formed due to tectonic rifting and significant subsidence. Lake Baikal is 636 km long, 48 km wide, with an area of 31,500 square kilometers, an elevation of 455 meters above sea level, and an average depth of 730 meters.
With such depth, it is easy to understand why no one dares to attempt to salvage the treasures of Tsar Nicholas II. Money is indeed precious, but human life is even more valuable.
According to scientists, searching the bottom of Lake Baikal is highly difficult and involves significant danger, necessitating additional investment in scientific and technological forces.
The location of Lake Baikal lies at the intersection of various seismic belts. Data shows that approximately every ten years, earthquakes with a magnitude of around 6 on the Richter scale occur, and every 30 years, catastrophic earthquakes of around 9 on the Richter scale take place.
Notable historical earthquakes include those recorded in 1862 and 1959. For instance, in 1960, an earthquake measuring 9.5 on the Richter scale occurred at Lake Baikal, affecting the entire geological structure around it and the lake’s water level.
Additionally, there are some surface radiations that may increase the fracturing process of the crust. Therefore, without advanced technology to serve as a rescue force, who would dare to risk their lives?
It is worth mentioning that Lake Baikal was not covered during the Fourth Ice Age; the lake still preserves many species of freshwater animals from the Tertiary period, such as the Baikal seal, Arctic whitefish, omul salmon, and grayling. Most people who intended to search for the treasure have given up after hearing that it is not only deep but also inhabited by fish like the grayling.
Lake Baikal was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.
Finding it doesn’t mean ownership
Since Lake Baikal was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996, from this perspective, Lake Baikal seems to belong to everyone and to all of humanity.
However, the indigenous residents living around the lake are the Irkutsk ethnic minority. Looking at the borders, Lake Baikal is located within the territories of both the Republic of Buryatia and Irkutsk Oblast. Therefore, there is no way to make a relatively unified statement about who the entire lake belongs to.
Moreover, when considering whether it is feasible to search for 1,600 tons of gold from the lake’s bottom, experts also take into account the natural issues. The entire area of Lake Baikal is a natural biological chain. For the underwater animals, this is a complete world.
If human impacts severely damage the lake’s environment, the biological, botanical, and even mineral resources here could be affected. This could be a loss for all humanity in the present and the future.
Therefore, regardless of whether this legend is true or not, the mere issue of technology not being sufficiently developed means no one dares to think about starting the verification of this legend.
