The West zone is a hilly and forested area that contains over a dozen little visited monuments. The area is located West of the walled old town between the road to Tak (Route 12) and the road through the Or gate in the ancient Western city wall.
Spread out over an area of several kilometers, it contains mostly small monuments in the forest and on hill tops, most of them a single stupa or other structure.
In the days of the Sukhothai empire the area was known as Aranyika. Monks studied the Tripitaka and practised meditation in forest temples. An ancient stone inscription mentions that Ramkhamhaeng, the third King of Sukhothai, visited the area regularly to pay his respects to a Buddha image, believed to be the standing Buddha image of the Wat Saphan Hin.