Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn

Before you rises Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn, with its great central tower, the prang, which symbolises Mount Meru, the centre of the universe in Buddhist and Hindu cosmology. You're in Thonburi, the bank that was the capital before Bangkok.

1A king's temple

The temple already existed in Ayutthaya times, when it was called Wat Makok. After the fall of Ayutthaya in 1767, King Taksin made Thonburi his capital here and renamed it Wat Chaeng. It's said he arrived by river at dawn and vowed to restore it. During Thonburi's years as capital, the temple housed the Emerald Buddha, until Rama I moved it to the new palace on the other bank.

2Porcelain from Chinese ships

Rama II planned to raise the tower to about 70 metres, and work continued under Rama III, who completed it in 1851. Figures for its height vary by source. Its skin is made of thousands of pieces of porcelain and seashells, partly from the ceramics Chinese ships carried as ballast. Between 2013 and 2017 it was thoroughly restored: some found it too white, but the Fine Arts Department argued that this was how it originally looked.

Although it's called the Temple of Dawn, its finest moment is sunset, when the sun goes down behind the tower.

3What to look for

• The porcelain flowers covering the tower.
• The figures of Chinese soldiers and animals around the base.
• The seven-pronged trident crowning the prang.