Category:Ratchaburi Province

Map Keys
	Large Prasats		Arogyasalas
	Large Ruins		Dharmasalas
	Medium Prasats		Ancient Bridges
	Medium Ruins		Ancient Cities
	Medium Tuols		Ancient Kilns
	Small Prasats		Ancient Quarries
	Small Ruins		Ancient Reservoirs
	Small Tuols		Ancient Villages
	Museums		Carvings
	Depositories		Other Structures
	Wats		Prehistoric Sites
	Neak Ta's		Unknown Sites
	Unconfirmed Sites

Ratchaburi Province is situated to the west of present-day Bangkok with Kanchanaburi and Phetchaburi lying to the north and south respectively and Nakhon Pathom and the capital's urban sprawl to the east. The eastern part of the province is watered by the Mae Khlong River and forms the southwestern limits of the central plains while the western reaches are mountainous and were an important source of gold during early times. Centuries of siltation from the Mae Khlong mean that the southern region of the province was certainly considerably closer to the northern limits of the Gulf of Thailand than they are today.

In archaeological terms Ratchaburi is very much a 'Tale of Two Cities', with its key sites being the important Davravati settlement and trading port of Muang Khu Bua and the 12th century, Jayavarman VII period site of Jayarajapura located in the area of the present-day provincial capital. A second Bayon-era settlement has been identified further north on the Mae Khlong in Bang Pong District which is known as Ko Si Narai or Samphuk Pattana, (Thai transliteration).

Unlike certain other Dvaravati sites further north and east in the central plains area, tangible evidence of an early Funan or Chenla presence is scarce and while Khu Bua clearly formed part of the Funanese trading network, physical occupation of the site in the manner of Jayavarman I's extensive constructions at Muang Si Mahosot, is absent. The latter settlement is situated approximately an equal distance east of present-day Bangkok as Khu Bua is west and it is probable that the extensive swamps and tidal marshlands of the Chao Phraya estuary formed a barrier to westward expansion during this period.

Later 10th to 11th century Khmer vestiges, dating to the period of Rajendravarman II and Suryavarman I's forays into what is today Central Thailand, are also lacking and it is plausible that Ratchaburi was just a bit too geographically distant to appear on the Khmer radar which, at that time, was orientated in a more northerly direction towards Lavodayapura, (Lopburi).

Direct Khmer control of the region does not appear to have been exerted until the 12th century and the Jayavarman VII period when far-flung settlements in what is today Petchaburi and Kanchanaburi (Muang Sing - Jayasinghapura)) were established. (Jayarajapura and Samphuk Pattana are both listed along with the latter 2 sites, in an Indravarman II inscription unearthed at Muang Sing which commemorates his father's founding of cities in that region.

While both settlements lie aside the Mae Khlong, Ko Si Narai in the far north of the province probably served to connect distant Muang Singh to more central locations while Jayarajapura - established on the site of the principal pre-existing Dvaravati settlement of the time - lay on the route to Phetchaburi and the southern limits of Jayavarman's new territories.