It was on a meander of the River Chao Phraya that Rama I decided to build his capital in 1782, leaving the site of Thonburi chosen by his predecessor. Here he built the splendid Wat Phra Kaeo and the Grand Palace , both of which are striking for t..

The royal chapel ( ubosot ) serves as a backdrop to one of the most sacred objects in Thailand, the Emerald Buddha (actually made of jade), at whose feet worshippers leave flowers, incense and other offerings. With its polychrome roofs, gilded deco..

The oldest temple in Thailand, Wat Pho is also home to the country’s most important school of medicine and traditional massage. It owes its renown to its impressive reclining Buddha (46m long and 15m high), which is completely covered with gold. No..

Bangkok boasts more than 400 wat , each with its own distinctive characteristics. The 19C Wat Sathut houses the largest wihan (main chapel) in the Thai capital, which is home to an imposing 8m-high gilded bronze Buddha from Sukhothai. The fresco..

This temple, a delightful mix of Western and Eastern influences, is the work of an Italian, Hercules Manfredi. Built at the very end of the 19C, Wat Benchamapophit boasts Carrara-marble walls crowned with pagoda-style roofs, while its interior houses..

Built without a single nail in the second half of the 19C, Vimanmek Palace is the largest golden-teak building in the world. Stroll through the palace’s maze of rooms, visiting the reception rooms, the Throne Room and the king’s bedroom. The latter..

Surrounded by greenery along San Sap khlong , this unusual teak house once belonged to the American Jim Thompson, an Asian art enthusiast who settled in Thailand after the Second World War. Thompson introduced the world to Thai silk and built up an ..

Unlike Bangkok, whose canals have been gradually filled in and replaced by avenues, Thonburi has retained its network of khlong lined with old houses on stilts. This area can be explored by boat, stopping off to visit the various temples and floati..

Royal barges are very rarely seen in procession on the River Chao Phraya nowadays. In order to relive these important ceremonies, take time to visit the Royal Barge Museum, a huge boat shed housing a collection of historical photos and splendid barge..

With its waterfalls and natural pools, the Erawan National Park, located not far from the Burmese border, is a paradise of water. It owes its name to the most famous of its seven waterfalls that seems to adopt the shape of an elephant ( erawan ). The..

Hat Khlong Phrao, a magnificent 4km-long beach, is divided in two by a channel along which the small village of Khlong Prao, with its charming houses on stilts, is situated. A walk through the forest leads to the Khlong Phu waterfall (20m high), wh..

Built at Ayutthaya’s zenith, in the 17C, in the style of an Angkor temple, Wat Chai Wathanaram is home to a magnificent central prang , which houses relics of Buddha. Situated at the four cardinal points, the chedi are worth a visit to admire thei..

The Wat Phra Si Ratana Mahatat is without doubt the most venerated statue in Thailand after the Emerald Buddha at the Wat Phra Kaeo in Bangkok, and the most copied in the country. This seated Buddha, made from gilded bronze and with features that h..

This old city, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991, has been turned into an historical park in which some of its buildings, previously buried under a mass of vegetation, have been restored or rebuilt. At the heart of the park, the royal c..

Founded, according to an inscription, in the early years of the kingdom, around 1240, and extended during the course of subsequent reigns, Wat Mahatat was reserved for the devotions of the royal family. In addition to the ubosot , the complex compri..

Just as impressive as its neighbour Sukhothai, the old city of Si Satchanalai (a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990) suddenly appears out of the forest on the right bank of the River Mae Nam Yom. In a more peaceful setting than Sukhothai, it conta..

Similar to the one in Sukhothai, this Sri Lankan-style bell-shaped chedi in the middle of the temple rests on a base supported by 36 elephants, which give the temple its name Wat Chang Lom. Despite the inscription which attributes the temple to Kin..

With a tall spire shaped like a lotus bud, this chedi is typical of Sukhothai art. Within the Wat Chedi Chet Thaeo complex there are no fewer than seven rows of chedi , which, despite the ravages of time, have retained their stucco decor. These mo..

Less crowded with tourists than Sukhothai, this site is also not as well restored and its ruins become increasingly damaged every year. Despite this, Wat Phra Kaeo is worth a visit for its impressive group of Buddhas – two large seated Buddhas surr..

In Indian mythology, the elephant carries the universe on its back. In Thailand, the animal also symbolises reverence to Buddhism and royalty, and was even the emblem of the country before the national flag was adopted in 1917. This explains the depi..