What is a Klong (Canal) ?

When Thailand did not yet have large roads, the artificially constructed side canals = Klong (correctly written: Khlong - English "Canal") in the catchment area of the great Chao Phraya river (Central Thailand) not only served as land drainage and flood protection (similar to those in North Holland or the lagoon of Venice) but also as transport routes. First Canals (Klongs) were probably dug more than 600 years ago!

Agricultural products such as rice, fruit and vegetables, meat and fish, textiles, pottery and building materials (wood, bricks, sand) were transported by boat to settlements and towns or sold on the water's edge («floating markets»). For centuries, they also served local residents as a way to work and at the same time to dispose of their faeces.

In the context of the emerging motorization, Klongs were buried in Bangkok from around 1920 onwards to create a first road system. At the same time, this led to better hygienic conditions, since at the same time sewage pipes were laid.

Although every Canal (Khlong) is inhabited in densely populated Thailand, they played only an insignificant economic role as traffic routes for decades afterwards. In the context of urban development in Bangkok, they were gradually filled up and built over. The emerging tourism has been able to revive it a little over the last few years. But for most of the Canals (Klongs) this idea came too late ...
And since they were never registered as «World Heritage», no one was ever told that this is probably the world's largest artificially created canal system, which is still in operation today.