Ali Pasha's Treasure

Ali Pasha governed Epirus from Ioannina for more than 30 years and built a court there that received European travelers, Byron among them. He also built a reputation for violence that outlasted him. When he broke with the Sultan, Ottoman troops besieged Ioannina and took the city.

Ali Pasha withdrew to the island in Lake Pamvotida and took refuge in the monastery of Saint Panteleimon. Ottoman emissaries reached him there on February 5, 1822, and killed him. The rooms he was hiding in are now the Museum Ali Pasha and Revolutionary Period, which has held the collection since 2012.

The treasure is what people looked for afterward. Ali Pasha had ruled a wealthy province for decades and, by the account that has been repeated ever since, hid what he could as his position collapsed. Where is the part nobody agrees on. The stories place it in the lake, in the castle, in the mountains of Epirus, and as far away as Thessaly.

The searches have continued ever since, most publicly in 2011, when a Greek Australian treasure hunter named Vangelis Dimas funded an excavation in Thessaly that found nothing but water.

The island itself. Ali Pasha chose it as his last refuge, which is the reason it appears in every version of the story. The monastery where he died stands, and the museum in it holds around 6,000 items including weapons and personal belongings.

The 1913 excavation. An Italian company working the ground for five years without result is the strongest negative evidence the case has. It tells you the obvious places around Ioannina were dug over a century ago.

The spread of the claims. A treasure story that places its object in a lake, a castle, a mountain range, and a region several days' travel away is a story that has lost its source. Each new location has arrived without displacing the last.

The island in Lake Pamvotida has no name of its own and no cars. Small boats run to it from the Ioannina city pier near Mavili Square, below the castle walls, and the crossing takes 10 to 15 minutes. Boats run often enough through the day that waiting is rarely long.

The Museum Ali Pasha and Revolutionary Period is a few minutes' walk from the landing, next to the monastery of Saint Panteleimon, and occupies the rooms where Ali Pasha sheltered and was killed in 1822. It has held its collection, including weapons and personal belongings, since 2012. Hours vary by season and it is worth confirming before crossing.

The island is also a working village with tavernas along the water. The castle of Ioannina on the lakefront, with its own museums, is on the way to or from the pier and makes an easy pairing.