
When it comes to protecting your treasures from prying eyes, you could stash them in your closet, but why settle when you could use some of the world's most impenetrable vaults and safes?
1. Fort Knox // Fort Knox, Kentucky

Thinking about breaking into Fort Knox? First, scale the four surrounding fences—two of which are electrified—then dodge the armed guards patrolling the area. Avoid the surveillance cameras, but don’t bother trying to break through the granite walls: They’re 4 feet thick, reinforced with 750 tons of steel. If you manage to get past the guards and the maze of locked doors, you'll still face the 22-ton vault door. Don’t lose hope, though. The vault can be unlocked, but only if you find all the staff members who know pieces of the combination (you’ll need them all, as no one knows the entire thing). Once inside the vault, you'll have to crack open the smaller vaults within it, and only then can you start grabbing the 5000 tons of gold bullion stored inside. But be careful on your way out: 30,000 soldiers from Fort Knox's military camp will be waiting for you outside.
2. Svalbard Global Seed Vault // Spitsbergen, Norway

In the event of Armageddon, any hope of restoring the world’s crops is buried 390 feet beneath a Nordic mountain. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault located on Spitsbergen Island now contains over 500,000 plant species from around the world. Positioned 620 miles south of the North Pole, the vault is shielded by hundreds of miles of ocean and a few thousand polar bears. Its depth makes it resistant to nuclear devastation and severe earthquakes. Sitting 430 feet above sea level, it’s also protected from potential rising sea levels. The vaults are secured behind four massive steel doors. As long as the keys aren’t hidden under a doormat, our seeds should remain safe from Doomsday.
3. Cheyenne Mountain // Colorado

Cheyenne Mountain takes the term 'job security' to a whole new level. Staff members work behind two massive 25-ton doors, designed to withstand a 30-megaton explosion. For perspective, the Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki would need to explode 1429 times to breach these doors. The offices are buried 2000 feet into the granite of the mountain, so deep that air must be pumped in from the outside. However, the air in Cheyenne is the cleanest in the world, filtered through cutting-edge chemical, biological, and nuclear systems. No wonder Cheyenne housed the U.S. Missile Warning Center and NORAD during the Cold War.
4. Iron Mountain // Pennsylvania

What connects the charred wreckage of Flight 93, the iconic photo of Albert Einstein sticking his tongue out, and Thomas Edison’s original light bulb patent? They are all stored beneath Iron Mountain. Situated 200 feet underground in a decommissioned limestone mine, it spans 1.7 million square feet of vault space. The U.S. government is the largest occupant, but 95 percent of the vault’s owners prefer to remain anonymous. What we do know is that Warner Bros., the Smithsonian Institution, and Corbis each have vaults there. Thousands of historical master recordings, original film reels, and photo negatives are kept safe here. Iron Mountain is also home to Room 48, a state-of-the-art data center protecting data for some of the country's largest corporations. The entrance is guarded by two waves of armed security, and their level of scrutiny is so high that even the TSA would be left embarrassed.
5. Federal Reserve Bank of New York // New York, New York

Just a few blocks from the busy streets of Wall Street, 25 percent of the world’s gold is stored. The Federal Reserve Bank in New York holds over $270 billion in gold bullion in a three-story subterranean vault. However, most of the gold isn't owned by the U.S.; foreign countries possess 98 percent of it. This is because they trust the Federal Reserve’s vault. After all, it’s buried 80 feet underground, surrounded by solid rock, and guarded by a team of sharpshooters. To top it off, the 540,000 gold bars are secured behind a massive 90-ton steel door.
6. Granite Mountain // Utah

Since 1965, Granite Mountain has been the guardian of the Mormon Church’s genealogical collection. Located 600 feet underground, the library contains billion images on microfilm, including census records and immigration documents. These materials were obtained through partnerships with archives, libraries, and churches across over 100 countries. Archivists work to replicate and digitize these records, which are then made accessible through sites like familysearch.com and ancestry.com. The facility is naturally climate-controlled, but also guarded by armed personnel and a 14-ton, nuclear-resistant steel door. Who knows, there might just be a record with your name on it inside.
7. Teikoku Bank // Hiroshima, Japan

When the Enola Gay dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima, the city and its inhabitants were wiped out. However, just a short distance away from ground zero, the vault at Teikoku Bank remained completely intact. While the outside was scorched, the interior was untouched. Mosler, the company responsible for the safe’s construction, seized the opportunity to turn the disaster into a promotional campaign. For years, it used the incident to advertise the durability of its products. Secure? Absolutely. Tactful? Not exactly.
8. Bank of England Gold Vault // London, England

It looks like something straight out of Indiana Jones: the UK’s largest gold vault—second only to the Federal Reserve in New York—houses a staggering 46,005,152 tons of gold. The vault is secured by a bombproof door, which is unlocked using a high-tech voice recognition system and aided by several three-foot-long keys. (As of now, they aren’t available for duplication at Lowes.) The exact weight of the door and the depth of the vault remain classified, but we do know it occupies more floor space than London’s Tower 42, a 47-story skyscraper.
9. Bahnhof and WikiLeaks // Stockholm, Sweden

The U.S. State Department likely isn’t fond of this secretive location. Situated 100 feet underground in Stockholm, this former nuclear shelter is famous in the world of data centers. Owned by the Swedish internet provider Bahnhof, this bunker is most well-known for safeguarding the servers of WikiLeaks. The crucial computers of Julian Assange are hidden here, secured behind a 1.5-foot-thick steel door and powered by backup generators that can last for weeks. As long as this facility stands, WikiLeaks will continue to operate.