Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park

Khao Sam Roi Yot (Thai: เขาสามร้อยยอด) is a marine national park in Sam Roi Yot district, Prachuap Khiri Khan Province, Thailand. It covers 98.08 km², of which 20.88 km² are marine areas. The park was established in 1966, and was the first coastal national park of Thailand.

Geography

The name Khao Sam Roi Yot means Mountains with 300 peaks, which describes the landscape of the park quite well. The limestone hills rise directly at the shore of the Gulf of Thailand, with the highest elevation Khao Krachom 605m above sea level. Between the hills are freshwater marshes. However several of these marshes were converted into shrimp farms, as only 36 km² of the total 69 km² of marshes are part of the national park. 18 km² of these marshes are scheduled to be declared a Ramsar site.

History

The area of the Khao Sam Roi Yot was probably the site where King Mongkut convened with European guests on August 18, 1868 to observe a total solar eclipse. The king was very interested in astronomy and had calculated the date and location of the eclipse himself. However he contracted malaria during that event, and died shortly later.

Later kings also visited the area, especially the Phraya Nakhon cave. The cave consists of two caverns, illuminated by the collapsed roofs. For the visit of King Chulalongkorn in 1890 the Kuha Karuhas pavillon was built inside the cave. Later King Vajiravudh as well as the current king Bhumibol Adulyadej visited the cave.

The national park was created on June 28 1966. It was enlarged on April 1 1982

Provided by wikipedia