The mystery of the lost gold treasures of Aztec Emperor Montezuma II still perplexes historians and treasure hunters five centuries later. Perplexed or not, gold hunters are still digging for the elusive treasure that is worth billions of dollars today.
The story of the lost gold treasure starts about 500 years ago in 1519, when the Spanish conquistadors under Hernan Cortés arrived at the New World in what is now Mexico. Moving inland, they encountered indigenous peoples who perceived them as gods, seeing them with their metal armors and the guns that spewed fire.
Soon, Cortés began making alliances with various indigenous people, including the Tlaxcaltec tribe, a long-time enemy of the Aztecs. The natives led the Spaniards to the island city of Tenochtitlán, the capital city of the Aztecs that lay in the center of Lake Texcoco.
According to latter Spanish accounts, like the Tlaxcaltec and the other tribes, the Aztec Emperor Montezuma and his people saw Cortés not as human but as god, the returning Aztec god, Quetzalcoatl.
The rest of the story is only told by Cortés himself. Historians tend to doubt the conquistador’s account since the winner will only tell the story that suits his purpose. However, there is no version of what happened after the Spanish men entered Tenochtitlán from the Aztec side.
It is written that the Aztecs welcomed the conquerors like divine royalty with pomp and honors. Soon they realized that the men with armor and weapons were nothing like gods.
The Aztecs kick the Spanish out—the Cortés revenge
Montezuma did invite the Spanish in, probably out of curiosity to learn more about them, historians argue. Soon, the conquistadors found out that the Aztecs possessed a treasure trove, and tensions started to build between them until one night in May 1520 when Cortés was out of the city. This was a night of mayhem.
During the festival of Toxcatl, the people of Tenochtitlán honored the god Tezcatlipoca, and Aztec noblemen and warriors celebrated in the Great Temple. Spanish soldiers locked them in and tortured them to reveal the location of more of the imperial treasure. In the process, they killed Aztecs in the hundreds.
The Spanish soldiers claimed they saved innocent people from a human sacrifice. The natives said the men they previously mistook as gods became greedy, murderous beasts once they set eyes on the gold.
The Aztecs then turned against their foreign guests, and the Spanish held Montezuma hostage to save themselves. When Cortés returned, they had no other choice but to escape in the dead of night.
The Spaniards grabbed every piece of gold, silver, and precious stone they could carry and headed out. They couldn’t get far, however, as the Aztecs attacked them, killing most of Cortés’ army of five hundred men.
Montezuma was killed that night. Some believe he was most likely slain by the Spanish. Others that he was stoned to death by his own people for trusting the foreign men and allowing them to enter their city. That night became known as La Noche Triste (The Sad Night).
This is where the legend of Montezuma’s lost gold begins. It is said that the fleeing Spanish soldiers dumped their gold and silver in the waters surrounding the causeway as they ran for their lives.
The legend of Montezuma’s lost gold
A year later, Cortés returned with a larger army and ransacked Tenochtitlán. The Spanish killed the new emperor and put an end to the great Aztec Empire. They also searched for the lost gold to no avail. The treasure had disappeared and hadn’t been found since.
The most popular theory about the hiding place of the treasure is that, after the Spaniards fled the city, the Aztecs hid the precious load at the bottom of Lake Texcoco.
It is said that the Aztecs may have used a strategy called a water trap to hide their precious jewels. Such a trap requires digging 35 feet deep underwater and building a tunnel leading to the inside of a cavern next to the pond.
According to locals, treasure hunters throughout time searched the lake extensively but found nothing. Legend has it that a later president of Mexico dredged Lake Texcoco but likewise found nothing.
Another theory claims the Aztecs dredged the treasure from the lake and hid it somewhere else before Cortés and his men returned for revenge.
The location of Montezuma’s gold has been the subject of debate and the Holy Grail for treasure hunters since 1520. Many legends surround its mysterious location, generating new theories through the years.
One of them is that, after the Spanish left, 8,000 Aztecs traveled north to what is now the United States to hide the treasure. They carried with them the exhumed body of Montezuma. When they reached a secret location, they cursed the place, killed the slaves who carried it, and buried the treasure, leaving a guard to protect it.
The legends
Some historians have claimed that the lost gold is hidden somewhere in Utah. Many treasure hunters followed this lead, yet not one piece of the legendary loot has been found in Utah.
According to John Mitchell, in 1847, during the Mexican American War, a rich Mexican named Don Joaquin enslaved the local Apaches to dig for gold in the Sierra Estrellas. However, when the United States Army arrived at the mountains, the Apache rebelled against the Mexicans. The Mexicans then hid the gold in a canyon near Montezuma’s Head.
Most of the Mexicans were killed, but at least one man survived. He returned to the mountains in the 1880s with a treasure map to find the gold. However, the Apache still controlled the area, and the Mexican man never found the lost treasure.
In 1895, Mexican newspaper Tuapeka Times reported that the treasure was found, but there was nothing more on the subject thereafter.
A labyrinth detected in modern times at the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument led to speculation that it might be home to some of the Montezuma treasure. However, after extensive excavation of the area, it was determined that there were no such findings.
