Incredible Findings in the Desert That Made Their Discoverers Rich

While deserts often hide precious secrets, they mainly offer sunburn, hydration, and a vast expanse of barren, sandy terrain. Nevertheless, these lucky treasure hunters (and amateurs) managed to unearth a hoard of ancient artifacts and gold hidden beneath the sands for centuries.

A historic firearm known as the “gun that won the west,” the Winchester Model 1873, was discovered in 2015 by park workers in The Great Basin National Park, located within the Great Basin Desert. It was a popular weapon, with over 760,000 produced between 1873 and 1916.

This find probably wasn’t picked up by a metal detector enthusiast out for a walk. This Ferrari Enzo, one of only 398 others and with an original retail price of $600,000, was found abandoned in the Dubai desert.

This uncut opal is said to be just under 5,000 carats. It was discovered in 1846 in Australia by Walter Bartram, who named it “the Fire of Australia.” Bartram kept it in the family until 2017 when he sold it to the South Australian Museum. 

This precious glass is thought to be made when lightning strikes the desert along the sands of the Egyptian and Libyan border. That heat shock turns the sand into this beautiful yellow and gold object you see before you.

No, somebody didn’t find the tablets themselves, but this find was groundbreaking in more ways than one. The set for Hollywood’s The Ten Commandments set a new precedent for special effects. 

It’s not often you will run across a shipwreck in the desert. This shipwreck, however, was heaving with long-lost loot. The Bom Jesus went down in 1533 after departing for India. It was found in the Namibian Desert.

This fossil-fuel giant tried to have this story buried—literally. The Texas-New Mexico Pipeline company—owned by Shell—created an environmental crisis after creating an oil spill in the New Mexico desert. They covered it up and sold the rights to the land to another company.

In the 1980s, there was a rumor that Atari Inc. had buried around 700,000 unsold video games, computers, and gaming consoles in a New Mexico landfill. The story was largely considered a legend until 2014, when the burial site was excavated.

A rare 2,200-year-old coin was discovered in the Israeli desert by archaeologists working in Tel Kedesh. The Ptolemaic Coin is thought to depict either Queen Arsinoe II Philadelphus or Cleopatra and is in excellent condition, given its age. 

This one was more than likely left there on purpose, and it’s hardly buried under sand, but it’s a great find for travelers nonetheless. Prada Marfa is a sculpture art installation in the desert that depicts a Prada storefront with authentic merchandise. 

A massive stash of aluminum was discovered in central Mexico in 2014, weighing approximately one million metric tons—representing about 6% of the world’s aluminum supply. Billionaire aluminum magnate Liu Zhongtian was suspected of shipping the aluminum through Mexico to evade U.S. tariffs, but the metal never made it anyway.

In 2003, U.S. troops discovered Iraqi MiG-25 Foxbat and SU-25 Frog Foot fighter jets in the sand at the al-Taqqadum Air Base in Iraq. The jets, believed to have been buried by Saddam Hussein to hide them from the U.S. military and potentially use them in a later attack, were brand new and worth over $300 million.

This artifact was discovered in 1952 in a cave near Khibet, Qumran. This scroll, written on copper mixed with tin, is unlike the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were written on papyrus. As well as being a significant historical find, there’s more.

Timbuktu, located on the edge of the Sahara Desert, was home to the University of Sankoré in the late 16th century. The university’s founder, Mohammed abu Bakr al-Wangari, built a library full of books on African and Islamic history, religion, sciences, and literature. 

In 1922, the burial chamber of the young Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun was discovered in the Valley of the Kings. On October 28, 1925, English archaeologist Howard Carter opened the sarcophagus and uncovered the now world-renowned golden death mask.

In 1999, a man named Jerry Freeman found a wooden chest in the Panamint Mountains in Death Valley, which he believed contained artifacts from the 1850s. The chest, known as the Death Valley Mother Lode, included 80 coins, several antique objects, and correspondences from William Robinson, a pioneer. 

Here’s a strange one. Scott Taylor of Utah apparently discovered a treasure trove in 2005 that includes 280 gold bricks with “U.S. Cavalry” stamped on them, a six-shooter, dynamite, and two Civil War-era rifles. The twist? Taylor refuses to disclose the location of the Delta Treasure to the government.

This find was an archeologist’s dream. In 2017, an ancient tomb belonging to an Egyptian goldsmith called Amenemhat was discovered at the Dra’ Abu el-Naga’ burial ground, near the Valley of Kings. Researchers would uncover a treasure trove of artifacts there.

Borax, a chemical compound used to extract boron, is a valuable mineral found in deserts across the world. Boron is an important component in various products, including glass, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics, making it a valuable commodity as well as beautiful.

It seems the ancient ones hid their valuable possessions from the world very carefully. The tomb of Pharaoh Psusennes I, who ruled Egypt around 3,000 years ago for over 50 years, was discovered in 1939. It was filled with gold artifacts, including a death mask, sandals, necklaces, and rings. 

Ever made a profitable discovery while out for a walkabout? Australian prospector Kevin Hillier discovered a massive 960-ounce gold nugget while using a metal detector in a desert gold field near Kingower, Victoria.

While walking their dog on their property in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains in 2013, a couple discovered an old can containing gold coins. Upon finding the first can, they continued searching and found a total of 1,427 scattered around, all dating from 1847 to 1894.

A team of researchers discovered around 250 mummies from the Greco-Roman era while excavating at the Bahariya Oasis in Egypt’s Western Desert in 1996. Many of the mummies were adorned with death masks, waistcoats, and other items, and many were in excellent condition. 

In 1965, Desert Magazine received a package containing a letter, papers, and two gold nuggets. The anonymous letter claimed that the sender had found Pegleg’s “burned black gold,” worth $300,000, and that—tantalizingly—there was more left at the site. 

For this kind of find, you’d need a little more than a treasure map and shovel. While gold, silver, and jewels are often thought of as treasures, it’s a lesser-known fact that uranium can be even more valuable. 

The Mesopotamians used these kinds of cylinder seals around 3,500 years ago. These small cylinders, about an inch in length, were rolled across the clay to create impressions with symbols and figures. They were often used as official signatures for royalty and could also be worn as jewelry. 

While hiking in the desert of Utah’s Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in May 2019, a man found two strange coins. He brought them to experts who determined that they were of Spanish origin, with one dating back to the 1660s and the other to the 13th century. 

Kolmanskop was a small, unremarkable, and quiet town in Namibia’s Namib Desert until a worker named Zacharias Lewala found a sizable diamond there in 1908. The town’s population rapidly grew as people rushed to the area in search of similar wealth.

Mongolia’s Gobi Desert is remote and desolate, but in 2009, Buddhist treasures were miraculously found there. Sixty-four crates of artifacts had been buried in the 1930s by a monk named Tudev to protect them during an incoming purge.

The Rosetta Stone was found in 1799 by a soldier in Napoleon Bonaparte’s army in Egypt. The stele has three translations of a decree issued in 196 BC on behalf of Ptolemy V Epiphanes inscribed in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic scripts, and ancient Greek. 

A rare meteorite weighing 75 ounces was discovered in Western Sahara, close to the Moroccan city of Smara, named “Northwest Africa 7397,” or NWA 7397 for short. While meteorites are not particularly uncommon, this is special—it is part of the total 300 pounds of Martian meteorites ever found on Earth.

While gold hunting is a popular activity in the deserts of Australia, it is not often that someone strikes it rich. However, in 2019, one lucky hunter had a chance encounter with fortune. 

If you are searching for silver, the deserts of the U.S. are a good place to start. The U.S. has a long history of silver production from its deserts, dating back to 1859 when miners discovered large deposits of the metal in Nevada, earning it the nickname “Silver State.” 

The Dead Sea Scrolls, found in a cave system in Israel, are considered one of the most valuable finds in the desert. The scrolls are a series of ancient parchments containing some of the earliest passages from the Hebrew Bible and other religious texts. 

Israeli cave explorers discovered a small collection of ancient Greek treasures in 2015, including two silver coins, jewelry, and a necklace. The items over 2,000 years old depict the Greek god Zeus and are believed to be from the time of Alexander the Great. 

In Chile’s Atacama desert, researchers discovered microorganisms that have the potential to save lives and combat long-incurable illnesses. One strain of these organisms has the ability to treat HIV due to an enzyme that enables it to replicate within the human body. 

Here’s another one that wasn’t exactly “lost” but would be a great find for a desert wanderer nonetheless. An Austrian artist took it upon themselves to create a unique and luxurious installation in the Mojave Desert: a fully-functioning, cool-water pool complete with all the features of a million-dollar mansion.

In 1989, a prospector in Senora, Mexico, discovered the Boot of Cortez, a massive gold nugget weighing 389.4 troy ounces, using a cheap, store-bought metal detector. It is the largest nugget of its kind in the western hemisphere and is a highly sought-after collector’s item. 

The Gibeon Meteorite, discovered in 1836 in Great Namaqualand, Namibia, is believed to be made up of fragments from a star that exploded around four billion years ago. The meteorite, composed of iron, cobalt, and nickel, weighs between 200 and 1,100 pounds.

The James Ossuary, a limestone box for holding the bones of the long dead, was discovered in 2002 in a cave in the Silwan region of Jerusalem. The box is particularly significant because the Aramaic inscription in Hebrew letters on its side reads, “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.”