Geography

The province is located in the valley of the Mun river, a tributary of the Mekong. To the south of the province is the Dangrek mountain chain, which also forms the boundary to Cambodia.

Khao Phra Wihan National Park covers an area of 130 km of the Dangrek mountains in the southeast of the province. It was established on March 20, 1998. It is named after the Khmer temple Prasat Preah Vihear (Anglicized in Thailand as Prasat Khao Phra Wihan), located in Cambodia, which had been the issue of boundary dispute between the two countries and was thus unaccessible for most of recent history.

At the boundary survey for the Franco-Siamese treaty of 1907 the temple was left on the Cambodian side, even though the boundary in other parts followed the watershed. In 1962 the dispute was officially settled by the International Court of Justice, confirming the 1907 boundary.

History

Due to the many ruins found in the province the area must have been an important settlement already in the times of the Khmer empire in the 12th century. According to local tradition it was called Sri Nakorn Lamduan (Nakorn is a derivative of the Khmer word Nokor) at that time, later it became known as Khukhan. Khukhan was made a town during the reign of King Boromaratcha III. In the northern area controlled by Khukhan Lao began to settle, which in 1786 was made the separate town Sisaket dependend on Khukhan. 1904 the town Sisaket was renamed Khukhan, while the old town got the name Huai Nua. 1912 Monthon Udon Thani was created, which took over most of the administration of the area. When in 1933 the monthon were dissolved, the province Khukhan was again directly administrated from Bangkok. In 1938 the town and province was renamed to Sisaket, and the district which contained Huai Nua got back the name Khukhan.