Geography

The province is cut into two halves by the Phetchabun mountain range, with the highest elevation in the province at 1222 m. The east of the province belongs to the Khorat Plateau.

Four national parks are located in the province. The Tat Thon National Park is in north-west of the province, featuring some scenic waterfalls and dry dipterocarp forests. The biggest attraction of the Sai Thong National Park in the west of the province is the Sai Thong waterfall, but also some fields of the Siam Tulip. Similar fields can be found in the Pa Hin Ngam National Park in the south-west, scheduled to be gazetted in the future. This park has its name from the strangely shaped rock formations found there (beautiful rock forest). Phu Laenkha National Park covers another 200 km? of forested hills northwest of Chaiyaphum town.

History

The history of the city of Chaiyaphum dates back to the Khmer Empire in the 12th century, when it was a small city on the route from Angkor to Prasat Singh (Kanchanaburi province). The Prang Ku still remains from this time. In 1817 the area was settled again by a group of Laotians. At first they settled in Baan Nam Khun Nong E Chan (Nakhon Ratchasima province), but soon moved to the current site of Chaiyaphum, then called Baan Luang. When the Lao King Anouvong declared war on Siam, the local ruler Jao Phraya Lae changed allegiance and supported the Siamese troops. In 1826 he was killed by Laotian troops, before these were defeated and all of Laos became part of Siam. Jao Phraya Lae was renamed by the Thais to Phraya Phakdi Chumpon and is still a local hero.