Wat Ratchaburana (Ayutthaya)

Built in 1424 by King Borommarachathirat II, Wat Ratchaburana marks the spot where his two elder brothers were cremated after dying in an elephant-back duel for the Ayutthayan throne. The king won the succession contest by default and raised this temple as their memorial. It stands immediately north of Wat Mahathat, the two ruins forming the symbolic heart of Ayutthaya’s old royal quarter.

The centrepiece is a tall Khmer-style prang — a corn-cob tower representing Mount Meru — whose restored stucco work still shows Garuda figures and naga serpents wrapped around its tiers. A steep internal staircase descends into the crypt beneath the prang, where faded frescoes from the early Ayutthaya period survive on the walls; these are among the oldest examples of Thai mural painting still in situ. In 1957, looters tunnelled into the crypt and made off with votive tablets, gold regalia, and Buddha images; the thieves were caught only afterwards. The Fine Arts Department’s subsequent excavation recovered more than 100 kilograms of gold alongside over 2,000 artefacts and 100,000 votive tablets. Almost all of it is now displayed at the Chao Sam Phraya National Museum, a ten-minute walk away — worth visiting after the temple to see what the prang once contained.

Insider Tip: Visit early morning when the light catches the prang’s stucco faces and before tour groups arrive from Bangkok — by 10 am the site fills up fast. The crypt staircase is narrow and unlit in places; a phone torch makes the frescoes easier to see.

Watch out: The crypt descent is steep and the steps are uneven. Anyone with mobility issues or vertigo may want to skip the interior climb and focus on the exterior reliefs instead.