Wat Saket (the Golden Mount)

A monastery on the eastern edge of old Bangkok, known for the artificial hill of Phu Khao Thong, the Golden Mount. The hill grew up under Rama III on the site of a collapsed chedi, and the golden stupa on its summit was finished under Rama V, who placed inside it relics of the Buddha brought from India. A spiral stairway of about three hundred steps leads to the top, from where the whole historic centre is visible. In the 19th century those who died in epidemics were brought to the monastery gates.

On the map