History Main / TreasureMap

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* In ''Manga/AsteroidInLove'', Ino's interest in cartography comes from the recreational use of this trope: treasure maps her elementary-school friend Keiko made for her as simple treasure-hunt games. She became interested in maps as she was fascinated in the experience of exploring with maps, even in places she knows a lot about.

* Creator/CarlBarks' and Creator/DonRosa's [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Uncle Scrooge]] stories often used this plot.
* Averted in the ''ComicBook/{{Tintin}}'' two part story, "Recap/TintinTheSecretOfTheUnicorn" and "Recap/TintinRedRackhamsTreasure" in the necessary information is not a map, but three papers that when held together reveal the coordinates of the sunken ship's location. Even then, Tintin had to reckon with Capt's Haddock using the Paris Meridian and not the Prime Meridian for his starting point and even then the whole message on the papers really meant that the treasure was [[spoiler:actually hidden in Marlinspike Hall]]. At one point they misunderstand the map, thinking the treasure is buried on the Island, then after digging realize that Sir Francis wouldn't have left the treasure on the island and never come back for it.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Mampato}}'' and the pirates, there is a treasure and a map, but the only one who knows where this is an extremely irritating and rude parrot (when the villains get him drunk in an attempt to reveal the place where the treasure is hidden, the only thing that they get a lot of insults loudly). But after an accident with a little powder, the mystery is discovered: [[spoiler: He has the map tattooed on his skin, they only discover it after he lost all his feathers.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TitanAE'', a map to the eponymous Titan is hidden inside the ring the main character, Cale, has as a memento of his father. Like a treasure map, you have to decode and visit every stop along the way.

* Before anyone can venture into the ''Film/CutthroatIsland'', three pieces that construct its map must be found first.

* ''Film/ThePacifier'' also had a bit of this, with the route for how to get through the obstacle course coded into "The Peter Panda Dance", a child's bedtime rhyme.
* ''Film/RomancingTheStone'' plays this one straight. Joan Wilder is sent a treasure map by her sister for safekeeping. But then the sister is kidnapped and Joan is forced to travel to South America to deliver the map. Inevitably, she and Jesse Colton end up following the map themselves.
* ''Film/ThreeKings'' was a strange example of this, with bored infantry finding the map in an enemy soldier's butt. It's better than it sounds.

* ''Film/{{Yellowbeard}}'': The treasure map is tattooed on the head of Yellowbeard's son Dan.

* In ''Film/AnneOfTheIndies'', Pierre has a half of a treasure map showing the location of Henry Morgan's treasure. [[spoiler:It is a fake and part of a plan to lure Anne and the Sheba Queen into a trap]].
* In ''Film/TheSignOfFourSherlockHolmesGreatestCase'', Small gives Sholto and Marston a map indicating where the treasure is hidden in the fortress. After Sholto murders Marston, the map ends up in Marston's personal effects and is eventually passed on to his daughter. She gives it to Holmes who is able to deduce from it what this case is really about.
* In ''13'' (the American remake of ''13 Tzameti''), a [[GotVolunteered 'contestant']] in the DeadlyGame draws a map of where he's buried money from a heist, and tells a guard that [[IfIdoNotReturn if he dies]] (a likely possibility, as they're playing RussianRoulette) he can take the map off his corpse and keep half the money, as long as he gives the rest of his son. Turns out he survives, so the guard tries to murder him for the map. The other guards intervene, whereupon the contestant brandishes a blank sheet of paper to taunt him, [[ILied claiming there never was any buried money]]. He then burns the genuine map once the guard is out of sight.
* In ''Film/LustForGold'', Floyd Buckley possesses a map that he says will lead him to the Lost Dutchman Mine. A flashback later reveals that this map originally belonged to Ramon Peralta and was lost when he was murdered by Walz.

* In Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's short story ''The Gold-Bug'', a hobby entomologist looking for beetles at a beach stumbles upon a piece of parchment with an encrypted message, which, once decoded, points the way to Captain Kidd's fabled [[PirateBooty buried treasure.]]
* ''Literature/TreasureIsland'': The map Jim Hawkins pilfered from among Billy Bones' possessions is the Trope Codifier, and possibly the Trope Maker too.
* Played with in ''The Ghost in the Noonday Sun'' by Creator/SidFleischman, which revolves around the search for a legendary pirate captain's treasure. His old crew know what island it's on but not where exactly it's buried -- there was a map, but it mysteriously disappeared after the first mate killed him for it. The map never does reappear, but the protagonist figures out what happened to it, which gives him to clue to where the treasure was buried.

* In Creator/RobertEHoward's Literature/ConanTheBarbarian story "Literature/ThePoolOfTheBlackOne", Zaporavo has a book.
-->''He desired to learn if this island were indeed that mentioned in the mysterious Book of Skelos, whereon, nameless sages aver, strange monsters guard crypts filled with hieroglyph-carven gold. ''
* In the Literature/SherlockHolmes stories, the eponymous ''Musgrave Ritual'' was in fact a set of steps to find where the crown of Charles I had been hidden. The story glosses over the point that given that the ritual was created circa 1650 and utilized circa 1870, it was only chance that the instructions in the ritual weren't hopelessly inaccurate (The starting point of the ritual is determined by the shadow cast by a certain tree when the sun was above a second tree. After 220 years, both trees would have grown, changing the angle of the sun and the length of the shadow. In addition, all later directions were marked in steps, which vary from person to person. Had the treasure been buried rather than stashed in a hidden basement, they'd have never found it).
* The short story "The Most Precious of Treasures" by Desmond Warzel. Tha map is genuine, but the treasure is...unexpected.

* In one of Literature/TheRiftwarCycle novels, it's mentioned that selling fake treasure maps was a common trick to get young men to wander out into the middle of nowhere so they could be captured by slavers. The boy who would become Macros the Black was one said victim of this con.
* In ''Though Not Dead'', Literature/KateShugak gets sent on a treasure hunt by Old Sam's will. It ultimately leads her to an actual treasure map that guides her to the lost icon.
* ''Literature/NinaTanleven'': In ''The Ghost Wore Gray'', Captain Gray left one to where he buried the jewels he’d brought from South Carolina to New York. [[spoiler:It’s mistaken for a map to his grave, and a tombstone is subsequently erected over the spot.]]
* In the novel ''Literature/TheJerusalemDiamond'', by writer Creator/NoahGordon, a new roll of copper is discovered in Israel (see in the section on Real Life) that serves as a complement to the one found in 1952, in Qumran, which would allow to finally discover the treasures described in them, including the Ark of the Covenant.
* ''Literature/WelcomeToWonderland'': In "Home Sweet Motel", P.T. and Gloria decide to have a treasure hunt to drum up business for the motel. To help customers find the treasure, they make a treasure map on some old stationary paper, which they then make copies of to sell to the customers at five dollars a pop.

%%* ''Series/PirateMaster'' did a game show version of this.
%%* ''Series/{{Treasure Hunt|UK}}''.
* The revived ''Series/WKRPInCincinnati'' did an episode where the gang goes on a treasure hunt inside the (multistory) building that houses the station. In a subversion, the treasure exists, and they find it, but do so much damage to the building in the process they end up merely breaking even.
* An episode of ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'' included the search for a large, hidden treasure with a treasure map that had been ripped into several pieces. The different people looking for the map were forced to work together as they had memorized their portions of the map and then destroyed them. Most of the treasure was the usual gold trinkets, but it included a place of Ambrosia, which would supposedly would turn whoever ate it into a god.
* ''Series/{{Monk}}'' notably inverts this in one episode: Troy, the disrespecting, rebellious teenage son of Dr. Charles Kroger, Monk's psychiatrist, found what appeared to be a treasure map inside of a dead criminal's hand while playing hookie. He then ends up dragging Monk along to find the treasure. Turns out the map didn't lead to treasure at all. [[TheSummation Here's what really happened]]: during the robbery, one of the robbers, Jack Connolly, was mortally wounded when he was shot by a guard (who was promptly killed by Jack's partner, said criminal that Troy's friends got the map from after he died of a heart attack). This proved trouble for Jack's brother Steven, who happened to be the bank's assistant branch manager (and had planned the heist with him), after Jack succumbed hours later, since the police would know the robbery was an inside job if the body was identified. So the heart attack criminal was drawn a map that indicated where to bury the body.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AzpByR3MvI The song at the top of this page]] from ''Series/LazyTown'' fits this trope perfectly.
* The Mad Dog Morgan episode of ''Series/WildBoys'' centres around the a map to cache of stolen gold.

-->'''Jeremiah Blackthorn''': Is this leather?
-->'''Santos Santana''': Not exactly.

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'': Treasure maps form a huge part of the endgame, as they open randomly-generated dungeons full of horrible monsters and treasure (emphasis on the random- one Japanese player found one with a floor full of MetalSlimes). Some specific ones let you fight BonusBosses from earlier games.

* ''VideoGame/{{Dubloon}}'' has a treasure map that also works as a PointAndClickMap. [[WithThisHerring It begins with humble two islands]], and you have to fill it with help from various maps strewn throughout the world. There's also an old pirate who will help you find all the treasure by marking islands you haven't fully plundered yet.
* There were quite a few of these in ''Pirates!''.

* ''VideoGame/ZackAndWikiQuestForBarbarosTreasure'' {{justifie|dTrope}}s this seeing as it's a game about a Pirate.

* On the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "Aargh!", Spongebob, Patrick and Mr. Krabs play a board game called Dutchman's Treasure, which Krabs becomes obsessed with. The next day, Krabs claims to have a real treasure map and takes Spongebob and Patrick on a journey to find it. Later, the map turns out to be [[spoiler:the game board, which Krabs had taken for a real map. However, it does turns out to be a ''real'' treasure map, as they do find the tresure, only for the Flying Dutchman to take it back.]]

* In ''Comicbook/SevenSoldiers: Manhattan Comicbook/{{Guardian}}'', the Subway Pirates are fighting over a map to the fabled "Foundation Stone" or "God Machine", (which is actually [[spoiler: a Father Box]]). The map was tatooed on one pirate's back, which doesn't stop a rival crew from stealing it.
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': In #48 the Barnacle Gang discovers the map made by the long dead ruthless pirate Capt. Storm which leads to his buried treasure.

* Admin of Oldverse (a whole bunch of Facebook Groups) did a treasure hunt along all the groups mixing references from gaming, nerd culture, manganime, memes and such. In fact, this is the last step of the hunt. Winner will win a videogame. The clue is this: En el Instagram de Old Gamers complete la frase de acuerdo a lo que dice el poema
[[spoiler: PISTA: Observar el tiempo]].

* The map in ''Literature/TreasureIsland'' (1883) by Robert Louis Stevenson - TropeCodifier.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has treasure maps inside bottles that players can find while mining, fishing, or doing botany. The map shows a small section of the regional map and a red X indicating where the treasure coffer is located. After digging up the coffer, trying to open it will always have a group of monsters attack you since the coffer is rigged with a trap and you have to kill all the monsters before you can open the coffer for its contents (usually rare materials, tomestones, gil, or even a more rare treasure map). Some coffers will require multiple players working together to fight the monsters since a solo player would not survive.

PISTA: Observar el tiempo

* In ''Manga/AsteroidInLove'', Ino's interest in cartography comes from the recreational use of this trope: treasure maps her elementary-school friends made for her as simple treasure-hunt games. She became interested in maps as she was fascinated in the experience of exploring with maps, even in places she knows a lot about.

Next, they'll need to find the starting point, the right tropical isle or hidden cave. Getting there may be an adventure in itself. Once there, the heroes have to find the actual location of the treasure. This can be as simple as XMarksTheSpot", or "fifteen paces south of the dead pine" (though might find that fifteen paces for one of their group doesn't cover the same distance for another) up to having to navigate a BambooTechnology DeathCourse, with only cryptic comments scrawled on the map to help them find the safe route through. If StatusQuoIsGod either the treasure will [[AllThatGlitters turn out to be worthless]] or the heroes will have to [[FriendOrIdolDecision abandon it for the greater good]].

* ''Disney/TreasurePlanet.'' - A holographic treasure map guides the way ... which is not surprising, since it is ''Literature/TreasureIsland'' [[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE!]]

** Subverted in ''Discworld/GoingPostal''. In the first chapter, the imprisoned Moist indicates to his jailers that yes, he has a treasure map to his ill-gotten gains in his pockets, a map full of everything to gladden a treasure hunter's heart, cryptography, puzzles, clues, etc etc. It's fake. According to Moist, any criminal worth the title would simply remember where he's stashed the loot.
** In ''Discworld/TheLastHero'' its strongly implied that the maps barbarian heroes keep finding that lead them to dungeon complexes containing treasure (and monsters, but barbarian heroes reckon you've got to deal with monsters if you want treasure) are left by the gods themselves, as part of their [[CosmicChessGame Cosmic Game That's Not as Complicated as Chess]].

* ''Animation/HappyHeroes'': In Season 7 episode 8, Big M. and Little M. are given a treasure map that leads to ''another'' treasure map that leads to weapons to destroy Planet Xing with, making it a "treasure treasure map".

%%* ''Film/RomancingTheStone'' plays this one straight.

Next, they'll need to find the starting point, the right tropical isle or hidden cave. Getting there may be an adventure in itself. Once there, the heroes have to find the actual location of the treasure. This can be as simple as "XMarksTheSpot", or "fifteen paces south of the dead pine" (though might find that fifteen paces for one of their group doesn't cover the same distance for another) up to having to navigate a BambooTechnology DeathCourse, with only cryptic comments scrawled on the map to help them find the safe route through. If StatusQuoIsGod either the treasure will [[AllThatGlitters turn out to be worthless]] or the heroes will have to [[FriendOrIdolDecision abandon it for the greater good]].

Next, they'll need to find the starting point, the right tropical isle or hidden cave. Getting there may be an adventure in itself. Once there, the heroes have to find the actual location of the treasure. This can be as simple as "X marks the spot", or "fifteen paces south of the dead pine" (though might find that fifteen paces for one of their group doesn't cover the same distance for another) up to having to navigate a BambooTechnology DeathCourse, with only cryptic comments scrawled on the map to help them find the safe route through. If StatusQuoIsGod either the treasure will [[AllThatGlitters turn out to be worthless]] or the heroes will have to [[FriendOrIdolDecision abandon it for the greater good]].