Wat Chaiwatthanaram, Ayutthaya
The riverside temple of 1630, built to a Khmer plan and the most complete ruin in Ayutthaya.
Wat Chaiwatthanaram, Ayutthaya
Wat Chaiwatthanaram stands on the west bank of the Chao Phraya, outside the island proper. It was built in 1630 by King Prasat Thong and laid out on a Khmer model: a tall central prang on a raised terrace, surrounded by four smaller prangs and a ring of eight chedi-shaped chapels.
Because the plan survives largely intact, it gives a clearer sense of how an Ayutthaya royal temple was meant to look than the more fragmentary sites on the island. The riverside setting makes it the usual choice for sunset, and it is often the busiest the site gets.
It sits across the river from the main cluster, so it is reached by road or by boat rather than on foot from the other temples.
- Wat Lokayasutharam, Ayutthaya — The great reclining Buddha of Ayutthaya, lying in the open on the west side of the island.
- Wat Mahathat, Ayutthaya — The temple of the Buddha head held in the roots of a banyan tree - the single most photographed image in Ayutthaya.
- Wat Phra Si Sanphet, Ayutthaya — The royal temple of the Ayutthaya palace, and its three restored chedis.
- Wat Ratchaburana, Ayutthaya — A 1424 temple with a climbable prang and a crypt holding some of Thailand's oldest surviving murals.
- Ayutthaya Historical Park — The UNESCO World Heritage remains of Thailand's second capital, on an island between three rivers.
- Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon, Ayutthaya — A working monastery outside the old city, with a great chedi and a courtyard of saffron-robed Buddhas.
