Khao Chi Chan: Pattaya's Buddha Mountain, the Golden Buddha Carved Into the Cliff
Khao Chi Chan: Pattaya's Buddha Mountain, the Golden Buddha Carved Into the Cliff Drive twenty kilometres south of Pattaya, past Jomtien and Na Jomtien, and the flat coast road suddenly gives you a mountain with a Buddha drawn on it in gold. Khao Chi Chan — Buddha Mountain — is a lone limestone hill in Na Chom Thian, Sattahip district, whose flat northern face carries the outline of a seated Buddha about 109 metres tall and 70 metres wide, on a lotus base about 21 metres high, so the whole composition stands roughly 130 metres from base to crown. The lines are cut into the rock and inlaid so they shine gold against the grey stone. You can see it from a long way off, and up close, from the lawn in front of it, the scale is hard to take in: this is one of the largest carved Buddha images in the world, drawn on a cliff. It is free to visit, it takes most people less than an hour, and it combines naturally with Wat Yansangwararam, Viharn Sien and Nong Nooch, all in the same corner so...