The Ayutthaya Historical Park, presently located in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya District, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Province, is a preserved area of ruins from the old Ayutthaya, Thailand. It was inducted onto the UNESCO World Heritage Site list as early as 1991.

The Ayutthaya Historical Park, presently located in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya District, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Province, is a preserved area of ruins from the old Ayutthaya, Thailand. It was inducted onto the UNESCO World Heritage Site list as early as 1991.

Deducted from contemporary sources and maps, Ayutthaya was laid out according to a systematic and rigid city planning, consisting of roads, canals, and moats around all the principal structures. The planning took maximum advantage of the city’s location in the midst of three rivers and had a hydraulic system for water management which was outstandingly advanced and unique in the world at that time.

The palaces and the Buddhist monasteries constructed in the capital, for example at Wat Mahathat and Wat Phra Si Sanphet, are reflections to both the economic vitality and technological prowess of their builders, as well as to the appeal of the intellectual tradition they embodied. All buildings were elegantly decorated with the highest quality of crafts and mural paintings, which consisted of an eclectic mixture of traditional styles inherited from Sukhothai and Angkor, and borrowed from the 17th and 18th century artistic styles of Japan, China, India, Persia and Europe etc, creating a rich and unique expression of a cosmopolitan culture and laying the foundation for the fusion of styles of art and architecture popular throughout the following centuries.