REDS LOOKING FOR HIDDEN WEALTH

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 150, 21 March 1925, Page 18

REDS LOOKING FOR HIDDEN WEALTH

ALEXANDER THE GREAT’S “BURIED ' TREASURE”

Despairing of being able to induce the “bourgeois capitalist robbers” of Western Europe to risk their money in a Soviet loan, and having, evidently, exhausted all reserves of wealth plundered from the Russian bourgeoisie, the Moscow Government is now studying the possibilities of finding the hidden treasure of Alexander the Great, believed to be buried somewhere in the Caucasus According to the Moscow “Isvestia” (writes the Russian correspondent of the “Morning Post”), the “Society for the Study of Azerbaijan” has recently held a series of meetings in Baku" to “discuss the whereabouts of the hidden treasure of the Macedonian Emperor, Alexander the Great.” An old inhabitant of the town of Shemakha, Saveheff, was summoned to appear before the learned society, as it is believed he is the only person alive who knows where the treasure is buried, and he gave the following evidence, as reported bv the official Soviet organ:— In the Sixties of last century a certain Greek arrived from Constantinople in Shemakha and devoted himself to scouring the environs of the town and the surrounding country as if he was seaiching for something. This Greek showed a local blacksmith a plaii, which he assured him would lead to the discovert of a hidden treasure. This plan had been stolen by the Greek’s father from the personal archives of the Sultan of Turkey, in whose employ lie had been. The site marked on the plan was, finally, one dav located bv the Greek and the blacksmith ,and it turned out to be a group of rugged rocks, with a

spring and the ruins of some ancient building. , , The Greek explained to the blacksmith that, according to the explanations contained on the plan, Alexander the Great had visited this spot when a mutiny broke out among his troops, and, fearing that his soldiers would deprive him of his treasures, he buried them there. On his deathbed the blacksmith told the storv and indicated the exact spot of the hidden treasure to another old man, who, in his turn, passed it on to Savelieff. The latter had located the spring and the secret marks and signs on the rocks and stenes surrounding it In 1913 Savelieff applied to the Imperial Viceroy of the Caucasus for permission to start excavations, but, although the permission was received, the work was never started, owing to the outbreak of the world war. ’ , At present Savelieff, says the Isvestia,” is prepared to show the Soviet authorities the spot on condition that he receives a part of the treasure. The Soviet of People’s Commissaries of Azeibaijan has received a report of the whole affair from the society, and is investigating the matter. It is believed that 'the value of. the buried treasure will amount to millions of pounds.

A second notice in a subsequent issue of the “Isvestia” quotes Professor Loviaghin, of Petrograd, who declares that Alexander the Great never penetrated as far as the Caucasus, and that he and troops had only been on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, i.e., in Persia, but not in what to-day is the Azerbaijan Republic.