Ask For Diamonds, Settle for Treasure

Not everybody can say that lightning struck them twice.  But while sucking alluvial diamonds off the  seabed in Namibia, a mining company found sunken treasure:

"The country's diamond company, Namdeb, says it found the wreck during operations on the seabed.

The find includes three bronze cannons, thousands of Spanish and Portuguese gold coins, and several tonnes of elephant tusks.

There were also human remains and navigational instruments. Excavations in the area were halted immediately.

Archaeological experts have identified the cannons as coming from early 16th-Century Spain.

It is thought to be the oldest shipwreck ever discovered in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Namdeb said it came across the wreck on April 1 during operations in the Atlantic after finding some copper ingots and the cannons.

The company is speculating that the ship may be linked to Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias, who went missing in 1500 after becoming the first European seafarer to round the Cape of Good Hope."

Bartholomeu Dias was the Magellan of the East, rounding the Cape of Storms (now the Cape of Good Hope) in 1488.  He drowned on a subsequent voyage (after discovering Brazil) when his ship and three others were lost, supposedly near the Cape, in May of 1500.  However, there is speculation that this Namibian shipwreck, off Namibia's southwest coast, could be associated with Dias.  First reports say the cannons and some of the coins are supposedly early 16th century, near contemporaneous but still after his death, but there is much more to learn about this remarkable find.

Hat Tip: Jungle Trader

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Now we have a great walkway that goes to the beach and to the canals that came from the partnership of community with government