Treasure seekers target Albania, the land full of treasures and legends

Albania is classified as the first most unexplored country in the world. This fact is a reason more to visit and enjoy this country, which may not always provide the right infrastructure, but surely guarantees adventure. Finally in Albania, although not said aloud, the number of people and expeditions seeking lost or hidden treasures has gone up. There are researchers, archeologists or adventurers those who visit famous sites or still inaccessible in order to find the hidden treasure. A guide to them are even people`s stories, information indicated or implied by historical sources, spoken through the testaments of forgotten legends and even literary publications. There is no way these treasure seekers not come in Albania, the country highly spoken for hiding one of the greatest treasures of all times. Not only individuals, but even countries are seeking the treasure of Ali Pasha. The Greeks have long sought the treasure, but for the Albanian researcher Sabri Godo, the place that hides 30 tons of gold and jewelry is Tepelena. The treasure seekers haven`t missed this information, Albanian and foreigners, especially when the information comes out from well-known reliable researchers. Other researchers and legends say that the amazing treasure is hidden in the castle which the elderly pasha donated to his new wife, Vasiliqi. The castle along Ionian Sea near Himara, rises exactly at the site where at least for the last one thousand years there has always been a castle, with 4 meters wide surrounding walls, secret chambers and underwater caves in its foundations. A byzantine castle designed by French and built by Italians all killed by the controversial Pasha. The castle has often been subject to excavations, and it is also spoken that the residents here have found a part of the treasure, but the rest is still under search, especially by foreigner seekers, not only in Vasilliqi castle, but even in the deep scary underwater caves of Karaburun, where nobody has come out alive so far. It happens that the state itself causes the fevers. The Albanian army, with helicopters and intelligence experts followed all the voices speaking of tremendous treasures hidden in one of the poorest areas in the country. The Mokra area, Pogradec, offers lots of legends on the treasure of Illyrian Queen Teuta. In 230 B.C, the first Illyrian-Roman war started. This is history, but that’s when the legend takes place. After the attacks, Teuta orders the hiding of the state treasure. It was transported through Egnatia road in the interior part of Illyria, in the territories inhabited by Dasarets and Enkelejt. According to the legend in Pogradec, 40 mules with 6 thousand kg of gold, diamonds and jewelry moved to Lunga town (Llënga called today). At the beginning, the river was deviated and then the treasure was put into the rock and then isolated with stone walls and they fixed the river again by making the treasure site invisible. According to area residents, groups of seekers have never stopped visiting the area introducing themselves as tourists or religious missioners always equipped with modern devices for the identification of metallic objects and they dig deep underground, enter deep into the caves and then get off the abysses there. Besides the legends, maps` studies, archeological research and residents` information, often people looking for treasures follow even other sources or legends and conspiracy literature, as in the case of “Snake stone” novel of Jason Goodwin. In the book of the English historian and writer, it is said that the Holy Grail or the Tears` Grail is hidden in Albania. There are video footages on YouTube demonstrating that somewhere in Çorovoda, people have undertaken searches and claim to have found the famous Grail of Jesus. In the video footages they speak of somebody who took the Holy Grail to bring it to the Holy Mountain, but he stopped and hid it inside a monk`s grave. Another conspiracy story is even in the only and unfinished novel of one of the most outstanding prose writers of the Albanian literature, Faik Konica. The novel "Doctor Needle discloses the roots of Mamurras drama” which for mysterious reasons was never finished. The Mamurras drama, a controversial event of the time that even though embodied in the novel title, was never mentioned in its content, and according to researchers, the influence of some people did not allow the author to finish the novel. Two American researchers (Robert Lewis and George B. De Long), who had come in Albania and killed in Mamurras. Their goal was to come and get the map. The Americans set up their specialists` team under the mission “Albanian Fairytale” aiming at stealing the treasure hidden in Vilë Mountain behind Dajti Mountain near Tirana. (Dossier "Alb23d'oro97" in the American Senate library). In the testament of Gjon Muzaka, the Albanian prince that fought beside Skanderbeg in the fifteenth century, codes are used for a lost treasure since medieval times, which was also sought by the Albanian state since 1983. The treasure seekers, numerous nowadays in these areas, often damage churches, dumas and archeological sites driven by wealth, adrenaline and adventure. We often read or listen about expeditions in the underground tanks of Skrapar, in Gramsh mountains, where the helicopters flying above use to take metal boxes from there, even though the foreign company pretends to seeks “oil” in mountains and no area resident is allowed to approach. There are uninterrupted searches always! Some well-known Albanian geologists say that Albania contains gold amounts the same as Alaska, but the mystery and wealth keeps on attracting treasure fans. Unlike other types of researches, treasure seeking is not a trophy that can be shared with others. The treasure seekers in Albania have never disclosed their results, as the Code of Civil Procedure provided that the treasure belongs to the land where is found. The person discovering it is rewarded with not more than half of the treasure value, according to the Albanian law.