Of all the world’s lost treasures, the Amber Room is among the most famous. A chamber constructed completely out of amber and gold leaf, it was so stunningly beautiful that it was long known as the Eighth Wonder of the World.
Finished in 1709, it graced the palace of the King of Prussia until he presented it as a gift to Russian Tsar Peter the Great in 1716. It remained in Russia for over two hundred years. And then it disappeared.
When the Nazis invaded Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in 1941, the Soviets tried to hide their famous treasure by covering it with a layer of dull wallpaper. The Nazis, however, were not easily fooled. It took them a mere 36 hours to take the Amber Room apart, pack it into crates, and load it onto trains bound for the German city of Konigsberg.
When the war was over in 1945, the Soviets tried to reclaim the Amber Room. But the Eighth Wonder of the World was never seen again.
Over past sixty years, there have been countless rumors regarding the whereabouts of the Amber Room. Some say it was destroyed in the bombing of Konigsberg. Others claim that it was buried somewhere in the Ore Mountains or perished on a submarine that sank to the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
But now, German treasure hunters say that they’ve discovered a forgotten underground cavern filled with Nazi gold. And they’re certain that the Amber Room is also hidden inside. Opening the cavern will be tricky, since the Nazis were known to booby-trap their treasures with explosives. So we may have to wait until Easter to know for sure if the Eighth Wonder of the World has finally been recovered.
Read more here.
(Below: Catherine Palace, home of the Amber Room)
19 comments:
That's amazing! Wow... real-life secret treasure. ^^
I hope they found it, though. And the consequences of the (possible) booby traps aren't too dire...
That's really cool! I hope they can get to them without blowing their heads off. ;D
By the way, what the heck happened to the Paris story??
I was reading all the archives, impatient to see the next blog post labeled with Paris Adventure, and then they all went *poof!*
I really, really, REALLY want to learn parkour. It sounds amazing!
Oh my goodness! In hindsight, I just read the article on Spiegel, and at the end it says there's a rumour that Hitler's real body is actually inside the Amber Room!! Wouldn't that be a find? ^^
And, funnily enough, my dad reads the Spiegel a lot. But in German. (:
very interesting! stupid nazis
Hmm.... I have this feeling that that isn't the Amber Room.... Idk why tho.
Totally stupid nazis! My great-great-great (dunno how many more greats) escaped eastern europe just before they attacked.
if they hadn't, i wouldn't exist, and if i did, i would be living in Lithuania. (I was gonna put a smiley here, but...)
That room sounds GORGEOUS. Stupid nazis!
Did you know that you have to be sixteen to carry pepper spray? (At least in California) I just heard about it on the news, apparently a fourteen year old had a can of pepper spray and a fifteen year old ended up getting it and spraying it in the air at the local high school. Some of the pepper spray got in the ventilation shafts and they had to evacuate the school! The teens ended up getting misdemeanors (one for carrying pepper spray and one for spraying it).
AWESOME! here's something i thought you'd like. i don't exactly know where its from... i got it thru chain mail...
(dang. how do u post pics on this thing? i dont exactly excel when it comes to techie stuff, i'm more of a combat/disguise girl)
IM: I can relate. All of my mum's side of the family went through those... events. It's really, really awful...
Elizabeth: WOW! That's amazing. ^^ I don't even know if you can buy pepper spray in Australia. But did you hear about that incident at the Australian Open? These Greek fans were cheering rowdily for a tennis player (from Greece), and the police "intervened" a little too drastically, if you ask me. They sprayed the entire area of supporters (who weren't even being violent or dangerous - just loud), including a couple of young kids, with capsicum spray. It was really terrible. Police brutality... or police insanity? o.o And I was in Melbourne at the time! I went to the tennis the day after it happened!!
Oh, and I carry around a bottle of this homeopathic spray stuff as a substitute for pepper spray, because I can't really find it. It works well, I should think. ;)
Jin Ai: If you click on the very last post at the bottom of the page, the "previous posts" section to the right of the screen displays posts posted before the one you're currently reading. So just keep clicking them earliest post until you find the one on Paris. ^^
I saw in the news 'Atalanta girl gets kidney from stranger'. Was that the school in the books?
anonymous: You can't insert images here, I just tried :P
But you could upload it onto Photobucket or something and send us the link.
Wacky. Hazel has a pin with a picture of someone putting a swastika in the garbage can. (It's really funny 'cause it looks like the 'throw this wrapper away, don't litter!'thing)
woah. I cant believe that they(the nazis) would basically destroy something like that. just think, if the allies had not won the 2nd world war.....right now i'd probably be speaking German right now(i m english). thats a wierd thought.....
How many Eighth Wonders of the World are there?
Elizabeth; Where do you /get/ pepper spray? I keep meaning to buy some for emergency situations (you know, just in case) but I can't find any anywhere.
I hope they find it! I don't think it's in their though. I also want to see more on the Paris story, (Is it real, or a short story?)
ehhh.... $_$
do
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