14.3569°N, 100.5675°E.
Wat Mahathat is the principal royal temple of Ayutthaya, the second Thai capital, located on the central island of the historic city in the Chao Phraya River basin. The temple was founded in 1374 CE under King Borommaracha I and rebuilt and expanded under King Ramesuan in the late 14th century. The complex contained the central royal prang — a tall corncob-shaped tower 50 metres high housing relics of the Buddha — surrounded by subsidiary stupas, ordination halls, and viharas, all built of brick faced with stucco and finished with gold leaf. Ayutthaya served as the Thai capital for 417 years until its sack and destruction by the Burmese army of King Hsinbyushin in April 1767, which left the city in ruins and the principal prang collapsed. One of the most photographed images in Thailand is found here: a sandstone Buddha head wrapped in the roots of a bodhi tree that grew over the fallen sculpture in the centuries of abandonment.
UNESCO inscribed Ayutthaya as a World Heritage Site in 1991.