The Lost Treasure of Montezuma — Aztec Gold in the Southwest
The legend of Montezuma's hidden treasure is one of the most persistent treasure myths in the US Southwest, blending Aztec history with Spanish colonial folklore and Mexican-American oral tradition. The story claims that as Hernán Cortés approached Tenochtitlan in 1519, the Aztec emperor Moctezuma II ordered his vast treasure of gold, silver, and jewels to be hidden to prevent it from falling into Spanish hands. According to various versions, the treasure was transported northward by a chain of Aztec runners and hidden in a cave somewhere in the American Southwest — possibly in New Mexico's Sa