Erawan Museum

Created from the vision of Lek Viriyaphant, the founder of Ancient City, the museum was established to preserve and transmit Thai artistic and cultural heritage through an architectural form inspired by the mythological three-headed Erawan elephant. Construction began in 1994, and the monumental sculpture was produced from hundreds of thousands of individually formed copper sheets, creating an architectural landmark that combines sculpture, religious symbolism and museum space. The interior is organised around a cosmological concept, with spaces representing the underworld, the human world and the celestial realm, and incorporates Thai and international artistic traditions, including stained glass, Benjarong ceramics, metalwork and religious sculpture. The Samut Prakan provincial government describes the museum's purpose as preserving art objects and cultural heritage while encouraging the continuation of Thai artistic traditions for future generations. Its heritage importance therefore lies particularly in its role as a modern cultural monument: rather than being an ancient site, it represents a twentieth-century effort to interpret Thai religious ideas, mythology, craftsmanship and artistic heritage through monumental architecture.

Ancient City

Established in 1963 by Lek Viriyaphant, the site was conceived as an open-air museum bringing together architectural, artistic and cultural representations from across Thailand, and was opened to the public in 1972. Its approximately 800-rai landscape follows a plan broadly resembling the shape of Thailand, with monuments and cultural features positioned according to their geographical regions, including the North, Northeast, Central Thailand and the South. The collection encompasses temples, palaces, monuments, sculptures, traditional buildings and other elements representing different periods of Thai history, from prehistoric times through the Rattanakosin period; some structures are reconstructions based on historical examples, while others incorporate or relocate original architectural elements that have been restored. The provincial government characterises the site as an important historical learning resource intended to encourage understanding of Thai culture, history and regional identity. Its heritage significance consequently lies in its role as a large-scale cultural archive in landscape form, allowing architectural traditions and regional cultural expressions that are dispersed across Thailand to be studied together and interpreted as part of a broader national cultural heritage.