Bangkok became Siam's capital in 1782, and every layer since — absolute monarchy, Chinese junk trade, a bloodless 1932 revolution, wartime occupation — is still legible in its streets. Three days tracing the city from Ayutthaya's ashes to the People's Party era.
Siam's capital 1350–1767, sacked by the Burmese army whose destruction forced the founding of Bangkok. The Buddha head strangled in banyan roots at Wat Mahathat and the three chedis of Wat Phra Si Sanphet cost ฿50 each; a six-temple pass is ฿220. Trains from Krung Thep Aphiwat take 90 minutes.
Built in 1630 by King Prasat Thong on the Ayutthaya riverbank, its 35m central prang copies Angkor Wat's Khmer geometry to claim descent from the empire. Burmese troops decapitated the 120 seated Buddhas in 1767; the headless rows still line the cloister. Open 08:00–18:00.
Housed in the 1782 palace of the Front Palace vice-king, this is Southeast Asia's largest collection: Dvaravati stone wheels of law from the 7th century, Sukhothai walking Buddhas, and the Phra Phuttha Sihing image in the Buddhaisawan Chapel. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
Begun by Rama I in 1807 to house the 8m Phra Si Sakyamuni Buddha carried by barge from Sukhothai. The scarlet teak Giant Swing outside hosted a Brahmin ceremony where men swung 25m for a bag of gold until deaths ended it in 1935.
The world's largest golden teak building, assembled without a single nail in 1900 for King Chulalongkorn after his European tours reshaped Siamese statecraft. The nearby Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall was where the People's Party declared the end of absolute monarchy in 1932.
Raised in 1939 by Field Marshal Phibun to mark the 1932 revolution: four 24m wings for the 24 June coup date, 75 cannon buried around the base for Buddhist year 2475. It became the rallying point for the 1973 student uprising and the 1992 Black May protests.
A granite chedi at Khok Wua junction names the students shot on 14 October 1973 when 400,000 marched against the Thanom dictatorship. Two blocks east, the Rattanakosin Exhibition Hall uses film and models to walk through 240 years of the capital.
Opened in 1916 in Italian neo-Renaissance style with a 1,500-ton steel vault, it dispatched troops and forced labourers toward the Burma Railway in WWII. Long-distance services moved to Krung Thep Aphiwat in 2023, leaving the hall as a museum-quiet monument.
The Hokkien trading quarter that predates Bangkok's founding, where Chinese merchants were moved in 1782 to clear ground for the Grand Palace. So Heng Tai is a 230-year-old bird's-nest trader's courtyard house, its central pool now a dive school.
Portuguese Catholics settled this Thonburi riverbank in 1770 after Taksin granted them land for fighting the Burmese. Their descendants still bake khanom farang kudi chin, a Portuguese-Thai sponge cake made in charcoal ovens, sold from front rooms for ฿10 a piece.
Six teak houses assembled in 1959 by the OSS officer who rebuilt Thailand's silk industry, then vanished in Malaysia's Cameron Highlands in 1967. Inside are Ayutthaya-period Buddhas and Bencharong ceramics, kept as he left them. Compulsory guided tours run every 20 minutes.
One of two survivors from the fourteen octagonal brick forts Rama I built along the 1783 city moat. The lawn beside it faces the Chao Phraya where the old wall met the river, and Banglamphu behind it kept its shophouse grid and 19th-century monastery lanes.