Khlong Chorakhe Sam Phan

Khlong Chorakhe Sam Phan is a waterway in the provinces of Kanchana Buri and Suphan Buri. It is a tributary of the Tha Chin River. Its name translates roughly as "three thousand crocodiles", presumably because, in the past, there was an abundance of crocodiles. This river is of historical and archaeological importance. The river nourished the moat of the Dvaravati city U Thong, called Chorakhe Sam Phan before. Khlong Chorakhe Sam Phan splits off from the Thuan River in Kanchana Buri, then flows from Phanom Thuan District through U Thong District to converge with the Tha Wa River at Ban Phai Ngoi in Song Phi Nong District (named after the confluence of the two rivers) to finally flow into the Tha Chin River.

The Chorakhe Samphan River had its estuary at the palaeo-shoreline. The people of U-Thong dug a canal to keep up with the regression of the sea but finally had to abandon this project. As a result of these events, by the eleventh century, when the Dvaravati period came to an end, Suphan Buri was in existence and replaced Nakhon Pathom and U-Thong as the most important state west of the Chao Phraya River.

Ayutthaya Historical Research