Wat Phrachetuponwimonmonkhararam Ratchaworawihan (Wat Pho)
Wat Pho is situated behind the Grand Palace, near the Tha Tien Pier. It is a large temple that was originally called Wat Photharam and was built during the Ayutthaya Period. King Rama I ordered its complete restoration in 1789 and installed many Buddha images that were removed from abandoned temples in other parts of the country.
King Rama III ordered another major renovation of the temple to make it a center of learning and art. This restoration took sixteen years to complete. Texts from treatises on various fields of knowledge were inscribed on marble slabs and placed in pavilions in the temple and on stone statues. Wat Pho thus became a source of knowledge for people of all classes and has therefore been referred to as Thailand’s first university.