Heritage walk · Royal quarter
The founding axis of Bangkok, south to north: from the Reclining Buddha past the palace wall, across the royal field, and up the river road to the last northern fort. Four kilometres through the densest register fabric in the country. Go at seven in the morning and the island is yours.
The line is a real street-following walking route (OSRM foot profile, © OpenStreetMap contributors) — 4.9 km, about 66 minutes at walking pace. Follow the numbers.
The 46-metre Reclining Buddha, 91 chedis, and the marble plaques of medicine and massage that made this Thailand's first open university — UNESCO Memory of the World.
Gazetted 2001 · 25 years ago
The 1782 palace of the dynasty and the Emerald Buddha's chapel — a square kilometre of gold behind two kilometres of white crenellated wall.
1592 m from stop 1 · 21 min walk
The wooden pillar Rama I raised on 21 April 1782, 6:54 a.m. — the city's astrological birth certificate. Every Bangkok horoscope starts from this spot.
Gazetted 2009 · 17 years ago643 m from stop 2 · 9 min walk
The royal field: cremation ground of kings, kite field of commoners, and the open lung the palace was designed to be seen across.
632 m from stop 3 · 8 min walk
Older than the capital around it; seat of the Maha Nikaya order and of vipassana meditation teaching in Bangkok. The amulet market runs along its wall.
Gazetted 2001 · 25 years ago523 m from stop 4 · 7 min walk
The Front Palace of the deputy kings, made the national museum in 1887 — the buildings are the biggest exhibit, and the Buddhaisawan Chapel's murals the finest of their century.
427 m from stop 5 · 6 min walk
The river road of minor palaces and 1900s shophouses, now cafés facing the water — the register protects the run as one monument.
711 m from stop 6 · 9 min walk
One of two survivors of the fourteen forts of 1783, holding the island's northern point over Santichaiprakan park — finish here at sunset over the river.
Gazetted 2001 · 25 years ago414 m from stop 7 · 6 min walk