Wat Saket — Golden Mountain
A king's giant chedi collapsed into the mud, sat abandoned for decades, and got a golden replacement built right on top of the wreckage.
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Rama III tried to raise an enormous chedi here but Bangkok's soft soil swallowed it. The crumbled mound grew weeds and doubled as a military lookout until Rama V finally crowned it with a gold-covered chedi housing a Buddha relic carried from Sri Lanka. The modern temple is clad in Carrara marble. Every November a candlelight procession winds up the hill and devotees write their names on a red robe wrapped around the chedi.
What to look for
- The gold-covered chedi at the summit, holding a Buddha relic brought from Sri Lanka by Prince Pritsadang
- The 1940s concrete retaining walls ringing the hill base, built to stop the artificial mound from eroding away
- In November: the chedi wrapped in a long red robe during the candlelight procession, with a Loi Krathong fair below
The November festival overlaps with Loi Krathong — arrive early if you want to climb before the procession fills the stairs.
Wat Saket — Golden Mountain is one of 38 sights worth the detour in Bangkok, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Bangkok pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Bangkok
- Grand PalaceIn 1782 a king moved his entire capital from Thonburi to Bangkok and built this walled city — Thailand's seat of power for the next 143 years.
- Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha)Every Thai king since 1783 has personally added to this temple — and the reigning king still presides over state ceremonies here today.
- Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn)Named for Aruna — the Hindu charioteer who drives the sun at dawn — this riverside spire was built to face the light it honors.
- Baiyoke Tower IIBangkok's tallest hotel stacks an observatory, a bar, and a revolving roof deck across three floors at 309 metres.
- BTS SkytrainBangkok sits in chronic gridlock — three elevated lines run above it on 70 kilometers of track connecting the city end to end.
- Rajamangala National StadiumThailand's largest stadium swells like a concrete wave — narrow at each end, rising steeply until the stands crest exactly at the halfway line.