First published: 28/12/15.

Ac 4.0

Phu Phrabat

Phu Phrabat (Inscribed)

Phu Phrabat by Els Slots

I understand that there are two parts to this nomination. I however only visited the main part where all the strange rock formations are located.

This is an interesting site and it is still possible to find evidence of how the unusual rock formations with huge boulders balancing on often smaller ones were used for religious purposes. These rocks take their shapes apparently because of under-sea erosion that happened millions of years ago. Traces of prehistoric rock art can also be found on some of the rocks and a number of these paintings were hardly visible. It is almost necessary (unless one has done quite a bit of research and has a very sharp eye) to have a guide to point them out for the ordinary visitor. Someone had to actually point one such painting out with a long stick to me before I could see it. The kind man who pointed it out to me told me that it was an elephant but I had to stare at it for quite some time before I could even see that it sort of resembled an elephant.

The historical park is located entirely within a forest park although being in the "drier" (dryness in this case being a relative concept) part of Thailand it is not quite wild tropical Asia. It was nevertheless still a rather wild place and a snake basking on one of the rocks scared the living daylights out of my guide. I found the place rather enjoyable to visit and take a walk in (notwithstanding the presence of snakes basking so openly on rocks) even if the novelty of the weird rock formations wore off for me after a while. The park is also still somewhat off the beaten track for most travellers, as with northeastern Thailand in general, so they do not seem to get many international visitors there.

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