Lopburi

Lopburi, formerly known as Lavo, is an old city of the central Thai plain. Its temples preserve the imprint of both Dvaravati and Khmer traditions. Among them stands Phra Prang Sam Yot, a three-towered Buddhist shrine associated with the Khmer king Jayavarman VII. The city sent embassies to Yuan China in the late thirteenth century, before becoming an important royal centre of the rising Ayutthaya kingdom.

King Narai gave Lopburi renewed prominence in the seventeenth century. He began building a palace there in 1666 and spent much of each year in the city, receiving foreign visitors as well as governing his kingdom. Its court witnessed the exchanges with Persian, European and other merchants and envoys that marked his reign. After Narai's death in 1688, royal attention shifted away from Lopburi, but its palace and temples preserved the memory of a second centre of Siamese power.

The later city of Sing Buri also lies nearby.