#Ayutthaya
Ayutthaya was the capital of Thailand (then called Siam) from 1350 until it was sacked by the Burmese army in 1767. This period of Thai history is now usually refered as the Ayutthaya period or Ayutthaya kingdom. The ruins of the old capital in the Ayutthaya historical park are now UNESCO World Heritage Site. The province is also home to the Bang Pa-in summer palace complex. Originally named Krung Kao (กรุงเก่า). the province was renamed to Phra Nakhon Sri Ayutthaya in 1919 (http://en.wikipedia.org/). The province is subdivided in to sixteen districts (amphone), communes (tambon) and 1328 villages (muban). There are two districts which have the same English name ; however this is only because the different pronunciation and thus different spelling in Thai gets lost in romanization. Ayutthaya is unique among the provinces of Thailand in that the district of its capital city is not called Amphoe Mueang (Ayutthaya), as the common scheme would suggest, but rather Amphoe Phra Nakorn Sri Ayutthaya. Phra Nakhon Sri Ayutthaya is located in the flat river plain of the Chao Phraya river valley. The presence of the Lop Buri and Pa Sak River make the province a major rice farming area.
