Within the confines of the ancient city's ramparts are more than 20 major monuments, while numerous other sights are scattered throughout the park which covers a total area of 70 square kilometres. The ruins have been restored to the limits of their state of preservation and stand amid manicured lawns and ornamental ponds, themselves set off by a distant background of wooded hills.

Originally an outpost of the Khmer empire centred on Angkor in Cambodia, Sukhothai achieved independence in the first half of the 13th century when two Thai chieftains rallied their formerly disunited people and established the first sovereign Thai state. With the influence of both Pagan to the west and Angkor to the east declining at this time, Sukhothai was well poised to become not only the capital of a new kingdom, but also a regional political and cultural centre of the first order.

As the undisputed power base of the new Thai nation, Sukhothai reigned supreme for only 140 years. In 1378 it became a vassal of up-and-coming Ayutthaya to the south; 60 years later it was totally absorbed by the younger Thai kingdom, and finally it was abandoned around the end of the 15th century. Yet in that brief time it established religious, cultural and political patterns that have never been completely obliterated. Accordingly the ruins that survive today are of paramount historical significance.

The history of Sukhothai in the Khmer period is still not fully understood. Khmer architectural influences are readily discernable in the ruins of a few temples, notably the earliest parts of Wat Si Sawai and Wat Phra Phai Luang, but it is unclear whether the site was a full-fledged Khmer settlement or merely a military stronghold. But whatever they did inherit from the Khmers, it is obvious that the Thais wasted little time in constructing their own capital on a scale and in a style befitting the birth of a nation.

In the first two reigns -- those of King Sri Intratit and his son, King Ban Muang (died c.1279) -- nothing disturbed the peace of the young kingdom which at the time extended little beyond the capital and the second city of Si Satchanalai some 70 kilometres to the north. It was in the reign of King Ramkamhaeng (c.1279-1299) that Sukhothai experienced its golden age. Under this monarch's masterful leadership the kingdom was consolidated, politically through territorial gains and culturally through the adoption, from Sri Lanka, of Theravada Buddhism.

It was Theravada Buddhism that served -- as it still does -- as the principal cohesive force in the Thai state. The Sri Lankan school of Buddhism further had enormous impact on art and architecture, its influence distinguishing the Sukhothai achievement above all else.More