All About Muang Boran, the World's Largest Open-Air Museum 

The world's largest outdoor museum occupies 300 acres just outside Bangkok – and in case you're wondering, that's about 227 football fields put together!

Places
3 min
Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Ripley's Believe It or Not!
All About Muang Boran, the World's Largest Open-Air Museum 
All stories
Places

The world’s largest outdoor museum occupies 300 acres just outside Bangkok — and in case you’re wondering, that’s about 227 football fields put together!

The grounds of this location, Muang Boran, are shaped like the map of Thailand and feature 116 life-size replicas and scaled-down models of some of Asia’s most impressive monuments.

Muang Boran , or Ancient City, is the love child of eccentric millionaire businessman Lek Viriyaphan, who also funded the construction of Bangkok’s Erawan Museum (famous for the 250-ton three-headed elephant statue that can be seen from miles away) and Pattaya’s Sanctuary of Truth, a 100-meter-tall, all-wood building that’s part temple, part art gallery, and all-around weird.

720px-Erawan_museum-001-683x1024.jpg
720px-Erawan_museum-001-683x1024.jpg

Bangkok’s Erawan Museum By Ddalbiez – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

When Viriyaphan bought land in the Samut Prakan area outside Bangkok back in 1963, his original plan was to build a huge golf course and have replicas of famous Thai landmarks as part of the decoration and design of the club. He apparently got a little carried away in the process and somehow ended up building an entire attraction park filled with historic sites instead.

With the help of experts from the National Museum, plus muralists and architecture students, Viriyaphan then set out to recreate some of the most famous buildings in Thailand. He even made sure the grounds of Muang Boran were divided into four regions so the buildings could sit exactly where you would geographically find them in real life if you were to travel to those regions.

Essentially, you get a chance to see all of Thailand’s most impressive landmarks in one place when you visit Muang Boran — that is, if you’re willing to ride a bike or drive a golf cart through the park, as the grounds are simply too big to be explored in one day.

The Lay of the Land

Some of the park’s most impressive structures include the Dusit Maha Prasat Palace:  the original 1806 design of the audience hall built by King Rama I inside Bangkok’s royal palace, the Grand Hall of Wat Maha That:  a 1:4 scale of the original giant temple ruins found in the ancient city of Sukhothai, and the Pavilion of the Enlightened:  a stunning green and gold floating temple where, the story goes, 500 monks from different cultural and spiritual backgrounds all became enlightened and attained Nirvana.

shutterstock_477260236.jpg
shutterstock_477260236.jpg

Pavilion of the Enlightened in Bangkok, Thailand

The park is also home to many wonderful examples of ruins from the old Khmer Empire which, for many centuries, ruled over parts of Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. 

The Khmer Empire is most famous for having built the 12th-century Angkor Wat in Cambodia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the world’s largest religious structure.

shutterstock_62735161.jpg
shutterstock_62735161.jpg

Sanphet Prasat Palace, Ancient City, Bangkok, Thailand

While Angkor Wat itself is not represented here, you can see similar examples of architecture in the recreation of Ayutthaya’s Sanphet Prasat Palace. Since the original palace was destroyed in the 1700s when the Burmese burned down Ayutthaya, this is your only chance to ever see its splendor in person.

Perhaps one of the most stunning buildings to visit here, however, is the scaled-down version of Preah Vihear, a ninth–century temple built right on the border between Thailand and Cambodia and dedicated to Lord Shiva.

Technically speaking, the temple right now sits on the Cambodian side, though Thailand has long disputed the location of the border and even fired some warning shots into their neighbors’ land in 2009 and 2011 after very heated skirmishes over it. The real temple is now closed to the public to avoid further disagreements.

Want more? The grounds of the park also feature plenty of pavilions, stupas, lakes, and islands reached via grand bridges and platforms. There’s even a floating market, where traditional long-tail boats take visitors through klongs (narrow canals) to pick up souvenirs, take photos, and see up close what old wooden shophouses once looked like.

About The Author

Ripley's Believe It or Not!

Ripley's Believe It or Not!

Step into the world of Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, where truth is always stranger than fiction! Bui…

By this author

The Most Haunted Places in the World

The Most Haunted Places in the World

Treasure Buried Under Portland, Oregon? You Decide!

Treasure Buried Under Portland, Oregon? You Decide!

Unique Halloween Traditions Around the World

Unique Halloween Traditions Around the World

Read All Their Stories

Or Explore Our Categories

Have an Amazing Story?

At Ripley’s, we’re always in search of the unbelievable – maybe it’s you! Show us your talents. Tell us a strange story or a weird fact. Share your unbelievable art with us. Maybe even sell us something that could become a part of Ripley’s collection!

Have an Amazing Story?

Read More Ripley's

Get lost in a vortex of weird and wonderful stories! Ripley’s twenty-first edition annual book is full of all-new, all-true stories from around the world.

Dare to Discover book
Buy Now
Swirling Pinstripe backdrop
Ripley's Cartoon of the Day

December 24, 2024

Cartoon of the Day

Invented in Germany around 1610, tinsel was originally a luxury decoration made from hammered silver!

Ripley's Cartoon of the Day

Robert Ripley began the Believe It or Not! cartoon in 1918. Today, Kieran Castaño is the eighth artist to continue the legacy of illustrating the world's longest-running syndicated cartoon!