Wat Traimit — the Golden Buddha

In 1955, workers moving a dull stucco Buddha dropped it — the ropes snapped, the plaster cracked, and gold shone through. Under the disguise (applied centuries earlier to fool Burmese invaders) sat the world's largest solid-gold statue. Nobody alive knew.

Guinness World Records lists it as the most valuable object of religion on Earth — the gold alone is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Before the discovery, the statue sat for 20 years under a simple tin roof.

When the plaster came off, restorers found a key sealed into the base. It unlocks the statue into nine neat pieces for transport — a built-in escape plan from Ayutthaya, seven centuries old.