From the archive record
Bird's eye view of Bangkok city. Buildings and rice fields, roads and traffics seen from an aeroplane. Bangkok is the capital and the most populous city of Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon . The city occupies 1,568.7 square kilometres (605.7 sq mi) in the Chao Phraya River delta in Central Thailand, and has a population of over eight million, or 12.6 percent of the country's population. Over fourteen million people (22.2 percent) live within the surrounding Bangkok Metropolitan Region, making Bangkok an extreme primate city, dwarfing Thailand's other urban centres in terms of importance. Bangkok traces its roots to a small trading post during the Ayutthaya Kingdom in the 15th century, which eventually grew in size and became the site of two capital cities: Thonburi i