Wat Saket is one of Bangkok's oldest temples, established by King Rama I at the founding of the city in 1782. The temple is best known for its artificial hill — Phu Khao Thong, the Golden Mount — which rises 80 metres above the flat Bangkok plain and offers one of the finest panoramic views of the old city.
The hill itself was an accident of ambition. King Rama III began construction of a massive chedi on the site, but the soft Bangkok soil could not support the weight and the structure collapsed before completion. The rubble formed a mound which was left to grow over with vegetation for decades. King Rama IV later built a smaller chedi on top of the existing mound, and King Rama V completed the golden spire that crowns it today.
The chedi at the summit enshrines a relic of the Buddha brought from India via Britain — presented to King Rama V by Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India, in 1897. A winding staircase of 318 steps circles the hill through gardens of frangipani and bougainvillea before reaching the gilded terrace at the top.
Every November the temple hosts one of Bangkok's most atmospheric festivals — the Golden Mount Fair — when the hill is illuminated at night and thousands of worshippers climb to make merit at the summit shrine.
"318 steps through frangipani gardens to a Buddha relic brought from India — and the best view in old Bangkok"
Historical Note
During the reign of King Rama II, Wat Saket served a grim practical purpose — it was the site where bodies of those who could not afford funeral rites were brought for sky burial, left for vultures on the hill. During the great cholera epidemic of 1820, tens of thousands of bodies were brought here. The vulture population of Bangkok grew so large they became a public nuisance. The practice ended in the mid-19th century.