Things to do
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Ayutthaya Historical Park
Ramathibodi founded the Siamese capital here in 1351, and Burmese armies destroyed it in 1767, leaving brick prangs, walls and headless Buddhas across an island bounded by three rivers. UNESCO listed the ruins in 1991. A full circuit takes the better part of a day; bicycles are rented all around the park, and the main temples are floodlit after dark.
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Bang Pa-In Royal Palace
Downstream from Ayutthaya, the kings of Siam kept a summer retreat of Chinese, Thai and European buildings set around ornamental water. Prasat Thong laid out the first complex in 1632, and almost everything standing dates from the rebuilding under Chulalongkorn late in the nineteenth century. Dress rules are enforced at the gate. A Buddhist temple in Gothic revival style stands across the river, reached by a cable ferry.
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Wat Chaiwatthanaram
Built in 1630 on the west bank of the Chao Phraya, this riverside temple copies Khmer temple-mountain design: a central prang ringed by four smaller ones and eight chapels on a raised platform. Late afternoon light on the brick brings the crowds, and the lawns fill with day visitors dressed in hired Thai period costume. It sits outside the island and is reached by road or by boat.
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Wat Mahathat
A sandstone Buddha head rests at ground level here, wrapped in the roots of a bodhi tree, and a queue forms in front of it through the day. The temple was founded in 1374 and burned by Burmese troops in 1767, leaving a collapsed prang and rows of headless seated figures. Guards ask visitors to crouch for photographs so that no head sits above the Buddha's.
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Wat Phra Si Sanphet
Three restored bell-shaped chedis stand in a row on the old royal palace grounds, holding the ashes of three Ayutthaya kings. No monks ever lived here, since the temple served the court alone, and its gold-covered standing Buddha, sixteen metres tall, was stripped and melted down by the Burmese in 1767. Little shade falls on the open ground, so a hat matters at midday.
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Wat Ratchaburana
Founded in 1424 over the cremation site of two princes who killed each other in a duel for the throne, this prang stands just north of Wat Mahathat. Steep stairs drop into the crypt, where early Ayutthaya frescoes survive in the dark. Thieves looted the chamber of gold in 1957, and later excavation recovered thousands of objects, now in the Chao Sam Phraya National Museum nearby.
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Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon
Monks still live at this working monastery southeast of the island, which sets it apart from the ruins inside the park. King Naresuan raised its chedi in 1592 to mark a victory over the Burmese crown prince, and steep steps climb inside it. Rows of seated Buddhas in saffron robes line the cloister, and a long reclining Buddha lies in white plaster near the entrance.
