Thailand Guide
The central plains
Ayutthaya
In its heyday as the booming capital of the Thai kingdom, AYUTTHAYA, 80km north of Bangkok, was so well endowed with temples that sunlight reflecting off their gilt decoration was said to dazzle from three miles away. Wide, grassy spaces today occupy much of the atmospheric site, which now resembles a graveyard for temples: grand, brooding red-brick ruins rise out of the fields, satisfyingly evoking the city's bygone grandeur while providing a soothing contrast to the brashness of modern temple architecture. A few intact buildings help form an image of what the capital must have looked like, while three fine museums flesh out the picture.
The core of the ancient capital was a four-kilometre-wide island at the confluence of the Lopburi, Pasak and Chao Phraya rivers, which was once encircled by a twelve-kilometre wall, crumbling parts of which can be seen at the Phom Phet fortress in the southeast corner. A grid of broad roads now crosses the island, known as Ko Muang, with recent buildings jostling uneasily with the ancient remains; the hub of the small, grim and lifeless modern town rests on the northeast bank of the island around the corner of Thanon U Thong and Thanon Naresuan although the newest development is off the island to the east.
Ayutthaya comes alive each year for a week in mid-December, when a festival is organized to commemorate the town's listing as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO on December 13, 1991. The highlight of the celebrations is the nightly son et lumière show, a grand historical romp featuring fireworks and elephant-back fights and the like, staged at Wat Phra Si Sanphet, Wat Phra Ram or one of the other ancient sites.
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