A team of treasure hunters may be on the verge of discovering the «world’s largest treasure» said to be worth £15 billion.
The team, known as the «Twelve Temple», had been searching in Finland for the «Lemminkainen Hoard» which consists of gold, jewelry and artefacts since 1987.
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If the treasure is discovered, it is believed that it will be the most valuable that could ever be found.
The group would spend the summer searching for treasure, working six hours a day, seven days a week.
The huge treasure is believed to contain around 50,000 precious stones including sapphires, sapphires, emeralds and diamonds.
It is also believed that about 1,000 artifacts dating back thousands of years are part of the treasure along with a number of life-size figurines in 18 karat gold.
Members of the group traveled from all over the world, including Russia, Australia, the United States, Sweden, Norway, Germany, and the Netherlands, to join the hunt.
Carl Burgen, the leading world reference on the Lemminkainen Hoard, detailed the lives of hunters and treasure in his book Temporarily Crazy.
Burgen, 60, said woman: “I understand that great progress has been made at the temple and that the crew is particularly excited about the months ahead.
«There is now talk in the camp about us being aware of a major breakthrough, which in real terms could be the discovery of the world’s largest and most valuable treasure.»
The treasure’s existence was acknowledged in 1984 when landowner Ior Bock claimed that his family descended directly from Lemminkäinen, which appears in Finnish pagan mythology.
Bock claimed that the room on his estate was sealed with stone slabs in the 10th century to protect the treasure from invaders.
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Bock, who was quadriplegic after being stabbed in June 1999, was killed by his former aides in 2010, but the treasure hunt continued after his death.
Born in 1942, Bock was an eccentric character who was seen as a «Sophie» and worked as a tour guide at the Suomenlinna Island fortress.
He claimed to be of a family line dating back to antiquity and which is depicted in the Bock epics.
The treasure is believed to be hidden somewhere in the Seebosberg cave system, 20 miles east of the Finnish capital Helsinki.
underground temple
The cache is believed to be located in an underground temple in Cebu.
Inside the temple there is supposed to be a spiral portico with small rooms of it where the cache collected through the generations is stored.
It is said that the last time the collection was added was in AD 987 when the hall was filled and the entrance was closed and hidden.
Countless official treasure hunts have taken place over three decades and have involved more than 100 professional prospectors from all over the world.
The group is now believed to be a few meters away from the treasure’s discovery, and it is believed that next summer may be the time when the treasure is discovered.
The original group that began excavations in 1987 consisted of 24 people, 12 men and 12 women, although only two of the original team survived.
Who was LEMINKAINEN?
Lemminkainen as a key figure in Finnish mythology and one of the heroes of the Kalevala.
He is believed to be a composite figure, made up of various characters in ancient Finnish oral poetry.
Usually seen as a shamanic figure, he is often depicted as young and handsome with wavy red hair.
In one legend, he is drowned in the Tonila River, a part of the underworld trying to capture or kill the black swan that lives there while trying to win Luohi’s daughter as his wife.
Another tale sees Lemminkainen battling the ferocious beast Surma – a large dog with a snake tale and people can petrify just by staring – who guarded the gates of Tuonela to prevent escape.
The Temple Twelve is expected to return to the site in May next year and resume work there in September.
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