🔍 Lost Treasures Trivia Questions & Answers
Buried gold, sunken ships and the treasures still waiting to be found. Below are 30 free lost treasures trivia questions with answers — part of Mysteries trivia on BUZZ. Want a real challenge that adapts to what you know? Play the Mysteries quiz — no signup needed to start.
30 Lost Treasures trivia questions
Q1. When Philip IV's men raided the Knights Templar in 1307, their treasury turned out how?
Answer: Completely empty
💡 Philip owed the wealthy Templars huge debts, which the mass arrest conveniently erased.
Q2. The gold-laden steamer nicknamed 'Ship of Gold' sank in an 1857 hurricane off which coast?
Answer: The Carolinas
💡 Its loss helped trigger a financial panic since so much California gold went down with it.
Q3. A couple stumbled on the record 'Saddle Ridge Hoard' of buried gold coins in which state?
Answer: California
💡 The buried cans of coins dated from 1847 to 1894 and were found while walking their dog.
Q4. Notorious pirate Blackbeard sailed under what real, less flamboyant name?
Answer: Edward Teach
💡 Historians still debate whether 'Teach' or 'Thatch' was his actual surname.
Q5. The famous Oak Island treasure dig, started by a teenager in 1795, is in which Canadian province?
Answer: Nova Scotia
💡 Diggers hit layers of oak logs every ten feet on the way down — as if someone had engineered it that way.
Q6. Which pirate linked to buried-treasure legend is actually documented to have really buried loot?
Answer: Captain Kidd
💡 Most real pirates spent their loot fast on rum and supplies rather than burying it for later.
Q7. Nazis tore down and crated which amber-paneled room from a Russian palace in under 36 hours?
Answer: The Amber Room
💡 It once covered more than 55 square meters and contained six tonnes of amber, earning the nickname 'Eighth Wonder of the World.'
Q8. Forrest Fenn hid a gold-filled chest for a decade in which US mountain range?
Answer: The Rocky Mountains
💡 He hid it along with a poem containing nine clues meant to lead searchers straight to it.
Q9. The legend of golden city El Dorado traces to a gold-dusted ritual of which South American people?
Answer: The Muisca
💡 Their chieftain would coat himself in gold dust and dive off a raft into Lake Guatavita as a sacred ceremony.
Q10. What does the term behind the El Dorado legend literally translate to in English?
Answer: The gilded one
💡 Over centuries of retelling, a golden man from a ritual gradually morphed into an entire mythical golden city.
Q11. Unlike parchment Dead Sea Scrolls, the Copper Scroll from Qumran was engraved on sheet what?
Answer: Sheet copper
💡 Scribes likely chose durable metal because the scroll records the location of real treasure.
Q12. Ireland's 'Crown Jewels' vanished in 1907 from a safe inside which Dublin building?
Answer: Dublin Castle
💡 The jewels were actually the bejeweled insignia of the Order of St Patrick, not a royal crown.
Q13. In 2009, metal detectorist Terry Herbert found England's largest hoard of what metal?
Answer: Anglo-Saxon gold
💡 His five days of digging filled 244 bags with gold objects from a farmer's field.
Q14. In which English county was the record-breaking Roman treasure the Hoxne Hoard discovered?
Answer: Suffolk
💡 It's now a star exhibit of Roman Britain in the British Museum's collection.
Q15. What nickname describes Oak Island's deep shaft that kept flooding through hidden tunnels?
Answer: The Money Pit
💡 The tide-linked flooding was first proven salty back in the 1850s, fueling the theory of a deliberate flood trap.
Q16. What year did the History Channel's show about brothers digging on Oak Island first air?
Answer: 2014
💡 Rick and Marty Lagina had actually been chasing the island's legend since 2005, years before cameras showed up.
Q17. How much treasure was actually found after this notorious pirate's death in 1718?
Answer: Essentially none
💡 The goods auctioned off from Blackbeard's crew added up to a fairly modest sum, nothing like buried-treasure lore suggests.
Q18. Legends of vast WWII war loot hidden across the Philippines are named for which Japanese general?
Answer: Tomoyuki Yamashita
💡 He was nicknamed 'The Tiger of Malaya' after conquering Malaya and Singapore in just 70 days.
Q19. In what year did a former journalist finally dig up Forrest Fenn's hidden treasure chest?
Answer: 2020
💡 An estimated 350,000 people worldwide had joined the hunt at some point over the preceding decade.
Q20. A German immigrant called 'the Dutchman' hid a gold mine in which Arizona mountain range?
Answer: Superstition Mountains
💡 'Dutchman' was actually old American slang for a German, not a reference to the Netherlands at all.
Q21. In 1985, Mel Fisher found which gold-laden Spanish galleon after a 16-year search?
Answer: Nuestra Señora de Atocha
💡 The 1622 wreck's haul was later valued around $450 million, one of the richest sunken treasures ever recovered.
Q22. Portugal's wrecked 1511 ship Flor de la Mar carried loot from conquering which city?
Answer: Malacca
💡 Estimated at $2-3 billion today, it remains one of the richest wrecks never recovered.
Q23. About how many tons was the Flor de la Mar, the largest ship of her era?
Answer: 400 tons
💡 That made her nearly twice the size of earlier Portuguese trade ships on the India run.
Q24. What did a heavily-hyped 2015 dig near Walbrzych, Poland, actually turn up?
Answer: Nothing at all
💡 Treasure hunters cited radar 'hits,' but diggers found no train and no hidden tunnel.
Q25. A scrap-metal dealer nearly melted down which missing Faberge treasure for its gold?
Answer: The Third Imperial Egg
💡 He'd paid about $14,000 for it at a flea market before learning it was worth millions.
Q26. More than a century after Ireland's Crown Jewels vanished, the case remains officially what?
Answer: Unsolved
💡 The thief was never named, and the jewels have never resurfaced anywhere.
Q27. Which treasure hunter finally located the sunken 'Ship of Gold' in 1988?
Answer: Tommy Thompson
💡 He convinced over 160 investors to fund the multimillion-dollar search.
Q28. Confederate raider nicknamed the 'Gray Ghost' allegedly buried loot in which US state?
Answer: Virginia
💡 John Mosby marked the spot between two pines but never lived to dig it back up.
Q29. The dazzling 'Bactrian Gold' hoard of 20,000-plus pieces was excavated in 1978 where?
Answer: Afghanistan
💡 It came from six ancient nomad burial mounds at a site called Tillya Tepe.
Q30. Detectorist Eric Lawes stumbled on Britain's largest Roman treasure hoard while searching for what?
Answer: A lost hammer
💡 The 1992 find near Hoxne held nearly 15,000 Roman coins plus gold jewelry and silverware.
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