But the province had also seen its share of warfare. The region was ransacked and pillaged by the Burmese in the 1760s and traces of that destruction mar the UNESCO World Heritage site to this day, from beheaded statues of the Enlightened One to defaced Buddha heads.
The most iconic image of Ayutthaya is the Buddha slowly being swallowed by the roots of a giant Banyan tree at Wat Phra Mahathat.
