Sukhothai ( th, สุโขทัย, ) was the capital of the

Sukhothai Kingdom The Sukhothai Kingdom ( th, สุโขทัย, , IAST: , ) was a post-classical Thai kingdom ( mandala) in Mainland Southeast Asia surrounding the ancient capital city of Sukhothai in present-day north-central Thailand. The kingdom was ...

. Sukhothai is 12 km west of the modern city of

Sukhothai Thani Sukhothai Thani ( th, สุโขทัยธานี, ) is a small town about north of Bangkok on the River Yom, a tributary of the Chao Phraya River. The population is 37,000. The town is east of the historic city of Sukhothai. This city w ...

History

Sukhothai is from Sanskrit ''sukha'' (सुख "happiness") + ''udaya'' (उदय "rise, emergence"), meaning "dawn of happiness". Founded in 1238, it is about 427 km north of Bangkok. Sukhothai was the capital of the Thai Empire for approximately 140 years. As of 2014, 193 temples have been excavated and partly reconstructed. The

stele A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek language, Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ...

of Ram Khamhaeng states the city had a triple wall and four gates. At its center was a pond, a "marvelous pond of clear and delicious water like the water of the

Mekong The Mekong or Mekong River is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's twelfth longest river and the third longest in Asia. Its estimated length is , and it drains an area of , discharging of water annual ...

in the dry season." The Aranyika monastery was west of the city, a great lake to the east, a market to the north, and the Khao Luang hill to the south. Old Sukhothai is a quiet town with almost no hotels. Most visitors stay in New Sukhothai. Others stay in the nearby city of Phitsanulok, which has numerous hotels and restaurants and is on the rail line between Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Sukhothai occupies an area of 6,596 km². The historic town of Sukhothai and related areas were designated a

UNESCO World Heritage site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

in 1991.

References

External links

* Geography of Sukhothai province Cities and towns in Thailand Capitals of former nations {{Sukhothai-geo-stub