Travel Day 1087 – Bangkok, THAILAND
One place I constantly seemed to pass by over the last couple of days was Mahakan Fort and today was actually the first time that I decided to stop and have a closer look…
Mahakan Fort and City Wall in Bangkok
During previous visits of Bangkok I had already passed many times a white wall adjacent to a busy street, always assuming that this was enclosing something that lay behind it. But when I took a closer look today, I noticed that I had always seen the inner part of the wall. This piece of wall appeared to be in fact the last remainder of the old city wall of Bangkok with the inside of the wall facing the historic city center and the outside facing a canal which probably used to be the former city moat…
It all made sense and when I looked at a city map of Bangkok and realized that the historic center was still clearly visible, marked by the river to the west and the canal to the east. The river and the canal were in fact forming Rattanakosin Island which in turn used to be the historical city of Bangkok after the capital got moved from Thonburi to the east side of the river. As it turned out, this historical city was entirely surrounded by a city wall with 16 entrance gates and 14 forts for its protection…
Wooden Mahakan Village in Bangkok
Mahakan Fort used to be the most eastern fort and luckily it was entirely preserved. It was constructed in an octagonal shape and to give Mahakan Fort an unobstructed range of view, it was protruding almost entirely beyond the angled city wall. Mahakan Fort also provided the opportunity for active protection of the city from three different levels; two lover levels were arranged for canon and gun fire plus another raised level was available in form of a central watchtower…
Mahakan Fort was really quite an interesting site and even if it didn’t really seem to appear on the usual tourist radar, it was still considered to be a significant landmark of Bangkok’s otherwise lost historical city boundary. But when I was walking around Mahakan Fort and taking photos on the little strip of land between the city wall and the canal, to my great surprise I came across what seemed to be another forgotten piece of old Bangkok…
Remainder of the old City Wall, Bangkok
There was in fact an old wooden community, called Mahakan Village and was perched between the historic defense wall and the former city moat. This little wooden village consisting of traditional two storey houses with wooden shutters and slatted openings for cross ventilation seemed to represent what the whole city of Bangkok must have looked like at some point in time. The strange thing about that was that what used to be inside the city wall had now become outside with a busy road along the wall and what used to be outside was now inside the wooden village…
In that sense my original assumption had been correct without even knowing it. The city wall was in fact protecting and enclosing something, the little wooden village with its historical houses. Rumor had it that Bangkok city was unfortunately debating to tear all the housed down, but luckily so far they were still there which made my little exploration walk worthwhile and me quite happy to have found them still in good condition…
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