Si Satchanalai and Kamphaeng Phet: the two historical parks beyond Sukhothai

The short answer

Si Satchanalai and Kamphaeng Phet are the two towns inscribed as World Heritage alongside Sukhothai in 1991, and the Fine Arts Department runs each as its own historical park.[8][2][9] They are very different visits. Si Satchanalai is spread out: a walled town on the Yom river, an older settlement at Chaliang, temples on the hills around it and kiln sites, inside a boundary of about 45 square kilometres.[1][2] Kamphaeng Phet is compact: a walled town on the Ping river and a second zone, Aranyik, just north of it, inside a boundary the department gives as 3.34 square kilometres.[5]

Si Satchanalai is in Sukhothai Province; Kamphaeng Phet is in its own province.[5][1] Neither lies in a town XTOUR treats as a destination. XTOUR's Sukhothai destination is the modern town of Sukhothai; XTOUR does not treat it as a base for either park and gives no travel times.

Si Satchanalai: a town, an older town and a ring of hills

The department places the park in Si Satchanalai district, on a plain by the Yom river with three hills around it, Khao Phra Si, Khao Phra Bat and Khao Yai, which it describes as a natural fortress. Its inner rampart is laterite.[1]

Two towns sit inside the park. Chaliang came first: the department's pages say the city of Si Satchanalai was built about 1.5 kilometres north of Chaliang, and both its Thai and English pages trace the older name through inscriptions and chronicles.[4] Under Sukhothai, Si Satchanalai was a Mueang Luk Luang, which the department glosses as a vassal state, and under Ayutthaya it was called Sawankhalok. It was abandoned after Ayutthaya's second siege by the Burmese.[4][1] The department's Thai page says the town of Sawankhalok was then re-founded at Ban Tha Chai, south of the old town, and moved under Rattanakosin to Ban Wang Mai Khon, today's Sawankhalok district.[4] Its English pages differ on who moved: the front page says Rama I moved villagers' families to Wang Mai Khon, while the history page says the administration moved and the townspeople stayed at Si Satchanalai.[2][1]

The department's front page groups the sites a visitor will find in three settings:[1]

• inside the ramparts: Wat Chang Lom, Wat Chedi Chet Thaeo and Wat Nang Phaya;
• outside them: Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat Chaliang, Wat Chom Chuen, Wat Chao Chan, Wat Phaya Dam and Wat Sa Pathum;
• on the hills: Wat Chedi Klao Yot, Wat Chedi Ain, Wat Khao Yai Lang and Wat Khao Yai Bon, among others.

Ceramics are the other half of Si Satchanalai's story. ICOMOS's 1991 evaluation says the town "was famous for its ceramics".[9] The department's Thai history page says that in early Ayutthaya the town produced Sangkhalok glazed ware for Ayutthaya, and its English history page counts the Turiang kiln sites at Ko Noi and Pa Yang villages within the World Heritage area.[2][4]

On Wat Chedi Chet Thaeo, ICOMOS describes seven rows of elongated stupas erected to hold the ashes of the town's governors.[9] That is ICOMOS's 1991 description; XTOUR has not read a Fine Arts Department page that says the same.

Kamphaeng Phet: a walled town and the Aranyik zone

The department describes Kamphaeng Phet as "a dominant stronghold of warfare connecting Sukhothai with Ayutthaya and Larn Na".[5] ICOMOS says the town played mostly a military role, kept its strategic importance after the fall of the kingdom of Sukhothai, and so has monuments in both Sukhothai and Ayutthaya styles.[9]

The park has two parts, which matter for how a visit is organised.[5]

• The rampart area, about 503 rai, is the old town on the east bank of the Ping, ringed by a moat and a laterite wall.
• The Aranyik area, about 1,611 rai, lies on a gravel hill outside the northern rampart.

The department's history page lists the sites it excavated and reconstructed in 1965-1969, among them Wat Phra Kaew, Wat Phra That, Wat Phra Non, Wat Phra Si Ariyabot, Wat Chang Rob and Wat Avasa Yai, together with several forts. The same page explains that an older centre, Nakhon Chum, stood on the west bank of the Ping under Maha Thammaracha I (Lithai), and that the administrative centre later moved across the river to Kamphaeng Phet. A 1968 registration covered ten zones, four of them small sites at Nakhon Chum; the park boundary the department gives today has two areas, the rampart area and the Aranyik area.[5][6]

How the two compare

What the department's pages say about entry

Both parks have English "Map" pages on the department's Virtual Historical Park site, and both list daily hours and fees set separately for Thai and foreign visitors.[7][3] The pages carry no date. XTOUR does not repeat the figures and has not verified them; ask the park.

The Si Satchanalai page gives directions from Mueang Sukhothai district along route 101 towards Sawankhalok, about 55 kilometres, then on to Si Satchanalai district.[3] That is the department's description. XTOUR has not checked the route and gives no journey time. The department's Thai page lists suggesting routes within the park to visitors among the park's own duties, which is the place to ask how to move between the town, Chaliang and the hill sites.[4]

Where the sources disagree

The figures do not line up, and XTOUR does not choose between them.

• Si Satchanalai's official opening is 17 May 1990 on the department's English history page and 17 November 1990 on its Thai history page.[4][2]
• ICOMOS counted 140 buildings at Si Satchanalai and dated the historic park to 1983; the department counts 281 historical sites and dates the registration of the park's area to 1988.[2][1][9]
• ICOMOS gives Kamphaeng Phet 3.38 square kilometres and a historic park from 1980; the department gives 3.34 square kilometres and an official opening in 1991.[9] The department's own zone figures, 503 rai (0.8048 square kilometres) and 1,611 rai (2.5776 square kilometres), add up to 2,114 rai or about 3.38 square kilometres, so XTOUR's reading is that the 3.34 on the same page does not match its own parts.[5]

Part of the gap is that the sources count different things: classification, registration and an opening ceremony are separate events. ICOMOS also records that in June 1991 the World Heritage Bureau asked for the perimeter of the sites, Kamphaeng Phet's in particular, and that Thailand supplied it in early October 1991.[9] The department's Thai page for Kamphaeng Phet dates the World Heritage declaration to 12 December 1991.[8] A World Heritage component and a park boundary are different lines on a map, and XTOUR never treats the designation as the same thing as a park.

What XTOUR does not tell you

XTOUR does not publish opening hours, fees, which zones a ticket covers, entrance locations, bicycle or vehicle rules, accessibility or travel times for either park. XTOUR does not suggest a base for either park. The Fine Arts Department runs both, and its pages above are where to check.

For the capital itself and how it compares with Ayutthaya, see Sukhothai or Ayutthaya; for what the 1991 inscriptions cover, see what UNESCO inscribed at Ayutthaya and Sukhothai. The Thailand country page lists XTOUR's coverage.