Wat Saket, the Golden Mount

Phu Khao Thong, the Golden Mount, is an artificial hill about eighty metres high in the old city, and its origin is a failure: Rama III began building an enormous prang here in the early nineteenth century, the soft Bangkok ground could not carry it, and it collapsed into a mound. Rama IV and Rama V built a stupa on the resulting hill instead and enclosed the ruin. The temple below has a harder history - during the nineteenth-century cholera epidemics Wat Saket was the place bodies were brought when the city could not cope, in numbers reaching into the tens of thousands, left for vultures because cremation capacity had failed, and that period is remembered at the site. The climb is around three hundred steps spiralling up the outside of the hill past bells and shrines to a terrace with the best all-round view of Rattanakosin. A temple fair each November wraps the mount in red cloth.

What you actually see

• The spiral climb - about three hundred steps around the outside of the mount.
• The summit terrace - the best all-round view over old Bangkok.
• The collapsed prang - the failed Rama III structure the hill is made of.
• The cholera history - the temple's role during the nineteenth-century epidemics.

When to go

November to February; the temple fair falls in November, when the stupa is wrapped in red cloth. Late afternoon for the light over the old city.

Honest expectations

Around three hundred steps with no lift - a real climb in heat. Crowded at sunset. A small charge for the summit. The cholera history is a serious part of the place and is signed as such.

Nearby

Loha Prasat and Wat Suthat are a short walk; Khao San Road is north-west.