Koh Panyee is a small island, less than 400m long, and there is not really any flat land. Instead, over the last 200 years since the village was founded, a community has built up over the shallow waters to the south of the limestone cliff / rock that makes up Panyee island. Most of it is huge, almost vertical, limestone cliffs. The hundreds of huts, shacks, restaurants and houses where the villagers live are built on stilt over the shallow sea. Indeed, at low tide, the waters are shallow enough to stand in, or disappear completely which must aid in building these houses