It has inspired numerous expeditions, several mysterious deaths and plenty of books. But 60 years after Nazi officers hid metal boxes in the depths of Lake Toplitz, a new attempt is being made to recover the Third Reich's fabled lost gold.

　　The Austrian government has given a US team permission to make an underwater expedition to the log-infested bottom of the lake.

　　Treasure hunters have been flocking to Lake Toplitz ever since a group of diehard Nazis retreated to this picturesque part of the Austrian Alps in the final months of the second world war.

　　With US troops closing in and Germany on the brink of collapse, they transported the boxes to the edge of the lake, first by military vehicle and then by horse-drawn wagon, and sunk them.

　　Nobody knows exactly what was inside. Some believe they contained gold looted by German troops throughout Europe and carried back to Germany. Others that they contain documents showing where assets confiscated from Jewish victims were hidden in Swiss bank accounts.

　　The state company which controls the lake, Bundesforste AG, has signed a contract with Norman Scott, an American treasure hunter, who hopes to solve the mystery.

　　Later this month Mr Scott will begin a detailed underwater survey of the 107 metre (350ft) deep lake, though there is profound official scepticism that there is anything left to find.

　　"I really don't know if there is anything down there, but we want to resolve the mystery once and for all," Irwin Klissenbauer, a director of Bundesforste AG, told the Guardian yesterday.

　　"The aim at first is to measure the lake."

　　He added: "This is a beautiful area. You have heard of Loch Ness. For Austrians this has been a bit like Loch Ness. Lots of people come here. And whether there is gold down there or not, the mystery has been very good for tourism."

　　Mr Klissenbauer said that under the terms of the deal - which allows the US team to dive for the next three years - any treasure found will be divided between the Americans and the Austrian state.

　　"Obviously if they recover anything which has an identifiable owner, under Austrian law we have to give it back."

　　This is not the first time explorers have tried to retrieve the lake's legendary lost gold.

　　In 1947 a US navy diver became entangled in Lake Toplitz's many submerged logs and drowned.

　　Then in 1959 a team financed by the German magazine Stern had more luck, retrieving ?72m in forged sterling currency hidden in boxes, and a printing press.