An elephant calf yawns as mahouts paint elephants ahead of celebrations for the water festival of Songkran in Ayutthaya, Thailand on April 11, 2019. The annual elephant Songkran event is held to promote the tourism industry. Songkran Festival is held also to mark the Thai traditional New Year falling annually on 13 April, and it is celebrated with people splashing water and putting powder on each other faces as a symbolic sign of cleansing and washing away the sins from the past year. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

With the Wat Samphran Temple, what you see is what you get: while a smattering of awed visitors across the web have expressed admiration for this impressive work of architecture, details such as when it was built, who designed it, or why this 17-story tower is in the clutches of a massive, beautiful dragon are nowhere to be found.

Devotees in a state of trance mimic creatures tattooed on their bodies during the annual Magic Tattoo Festival at Wat Bang Phra in Nakhon Pathom province, on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand March 19, 2016. Believers from across Thailand travel to the monastery to have their bodies adorned with tattoos and to pay their respects to the temple's master tattooist. They believe the tattoos have mystical powers, ward off bad luck and protect them from harm. (Photo by Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters)

A boy poses with a butterfly on his face during a photocall to promote the “Sensational Butterflies” exhibition at the Natural History Museum in central London, on March 25, 2013. With around 400 live tropical butterflies and moths living in the temporary facility, visitors will get the chance to see them flying freely as well as looking for emerging butterflies at the hatchery window. Running from March 29 to September 15, 2013, the exhibition is housed in a structure in the museum grounds. (Photo by Leon Neal/AFP Photo)

Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej in serious portrait January 01, 1960. Thailand's Royal Palace said on Thursday, October 13, 2016, that Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest-reigning monarch, has died at age 88. (Photo by John Dominis/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Devotees wearing protective masks pray at a temple in Bangkok, Thailand, 19 June 2020. Thailand opened most businesses to enter the fourth phase of easing coronavirus restrictions after the number of coronavirus cases remains low. (Photo by Diego Azubel/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A 69-meter-tall giant Buddha statue stands at the Wat Paknam Phasi Charoen temple on the outskirts of Bangkok on October 12, 2021. (Photo by Jack Taylor/AFP Photo)