Sukhothai Old City - Wat Mahathat 
The most splendid wat of the present ruined city was the Wat Mahathat near the earlier Royal Palace, a wooden building of which no trace remains. This wat alone covered an area of 4 ha (10 acres) and was surrounded by 185 chedis, six wiharns of varying size, a bot and eleven salas; a wall punctuated by gates encircled the area. The center of the site is most impressive, a main chedi with both a wiharn and a bot.
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The towering finely constructed chedi in pure Sukhothai style terminates in the tip of a lotus bud. The middle section resembles the Khmer prangs, the high square base is decorated by a procession of worshippers with 40 figures of about one meter high on each side. The niches of the four corner chapels show fine stucco work, rosettes, scenes from the life of Buddha, gods and demons in conflict; both niches and the pedestal ledge have Buddha figures.
Four Khmer prangs in the center of each side describe the four points of the compass. On the east side a high staircase leads to the interior of the central chedi. The pillars of a small wiharn (14th c. Ayutthaya period; with the statue of a seated Buddha) and the massive bot (40 3 15 m (131 3 49 ft)) are still standing. The rows of columns from the five-aisled bot in particular create an impressive picture. It once contained the gilded statue of the Phra Buddha Shakyamuni, which King Rama I had brought to the Wat Suthat in Bangkok at the end of the 18th c. Eight standing Buddhas are let in to the protective niches on both sides of the mondhops. Numerous crumbling chedis are located around this impressive group of ruins, in which the ashes of the deceased members of the royal family were interred.
Four Khmer prangs in the center of each side describe the four points of the compass. On the east side a high staircase leads to the interior of the central chedi. The pillars of a small wiharn (14th c. Ayutthaya period; with the statue of a seated Buddha) and the massive bot (40 3 15 m (131 3 49 ft)) are still standing. The rows of columns from the five-aisled bot in particular create an impressive picture. It once contained the gilded statue of the Phra Buddha Shakyamuni, which King Rama I had brought to the Wat Suthat in Bangkok at the end of the 18th c. Eight standing Buddhas are let in to the protective niches on both sides of the mondhops. Numerous crumbling chedis are located around this impressive group of ruins, in which the ashes of the deceased members of the royal family were interred.
