The river quickly accepted the short cut, so that the
channel right now looks like the river below.
The initial course had gradually silted up, and it is now
called Klong Bangkok Yai. This channel, called
Khlong Lat Bangkok, shortened the distance to Ayutthaya by about 14 kilometers.
The third shortcut, the Khlong Lat Kret Yai, was dug in
1608 in Pathum Thani. It reduced the trip from 18 kilometers 18 kilometers to
seven. The northern part of the original river bed is
now called "Khlong Bang Phrao," the South "Khlong Bang
Luang".
In 1636, the Khlong Lat Muang Nonthaburi was created, which
reduced a distance of 22 kilometers to 17. In 1722, Khlong Lat Kret Noi reduced
the trip from the river from six kilometers to two. This
also created the present-day island of Ko Kret.
The Chao Phraya, after the Mekong and
Salween, is the most important river in Thailand,
in Southeast Asia. It starts at the confluence of the Ping
and Yom rivers, at Nakhon Sawan. The Nan
and its largest tributary, the Yom, flow nearly parallel from Phitsanulok till
Chumsaeng, north of Nakhon Sawan. And
it is the largest tributary of the Ping, which
unites with Wang at Wang Chin.
In Nakhon Sawan the Chao
Phraya flows through the central plains about 370 kilometers to Bangkok, where it flows along the interface of the
Indochinese and Malayan Peninsula in the Gulf of Thailand. At Chainat, the river
splits into the main branch and the narrower Tha
Chin River,
which flows west to Samut Sakhon about 35 km from Bangkok
in the Gulf of Thailand. The Chao Phraya Dam is also in Chainat.
It is an important waterway
of Thailand and also serves, with its many channels (khlongs), to irrigate the
rice-growing areas. Besides
Bangkok, the ancient capital of Ayutthaya,
the smaller provincial capitals on the Chao Phraya
are Uthai Thani, Chainat, Sing Buri, Ang Thong, Pathum Thani, Nonthaburi and
Samut Prakan.
On historical maps, the Chao Phraya
is usually shown only as "Menam," or "Mae Nam", which is
the Thai word for river. In the
English-speaking world it is also frequently known as River of Kings
for its historical significance.
The current run of the lower Chao Phraya River
has been established since the middle of the nineteenth century. Previously,
after the annual floods the river often looked like a new bed, which flowed
south following the example of the Chainat down to Ang Thong to recognize a
former river course, which is located a few miles west of the present-day
river. Later Siamese engineers tried to influence the course;
in 1813 they built a dam in Ang Thong to straighten the river to Ayutthaya. The dam
broke again, so this project was eventually abandoned.
South of Ayutthaya, the engineers were more successful;
from 1538 to 1722 they constructed a canal that shortened by 62.3 kilometers
the distances that trade ships had to travel from the Gulf of Siam to the
capital, Ayutthaya. First, in 1538, they built a three-kilometer long shortcut
channel called Khlong Lat. This canal
shortened the route by about 13 to 14 miles.
This is not part of Khlong Bangkok Noi.
The second Khlong Lat has a great significance for
the Siamese history, because it created the geographic events that led to the
founding of Bangkok
and Thonburis. About the exact date, there is conflicting information;
it is said to be both in 1538 and 1542. The
two-kilometer long canal began around the former railway station of Bangkok Noi
and led to a point just south of the Wat Arun.
The sixth Khlong Lat runs south of Khlong Toei in Amphoe
Phra Pradaeng. The 600 meters-long channel should actually save
19 kilometers. Since the Chao Phraya River
is dependent on the tide, it soon turned out that seawater penetrated through
the new channel at high tide, reaching too far to the north and damaging the
lives in and around rivers. In 1784, a dike was
constructed that prevented the ingress of seawater. Today Pak Khlong
Lat the only channel that is not a part of the river course.
The German botanist Johann Gerhard Konig undertook a trip
on the Chao Phraya in November 1778, and
reported that numerous crocodiles swam in the river during the day and made
horrible noises. Also,
the reports of incredible number of monkeys were still in question. But both are no longer
mentioned by the travelers of the late first half of the nineteenth century, so they appear to have disappeared sometime
between the end of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
