Khorat Plateau

The Khorat Plateau is a highland in the northeast of Thailand, Isan, named after the biggest city in the area: Nakhon Ratchasima, shortly Khorat.

The average height is about 200 m above sea level. NN. The plane has an area of ​​more than 155,000 km2 with the topography of a saucer that is organized against the south-east and tilted into two major drainage basins, the Sakon Nakhon - basin and the southern basin. The main rivers are Maenam Maenam Mun and Chi, both of which flow to the Mekong. The Mekong River forms the northern and eastern boundary of the plateau, to the west include the Phetchabun Mountains, the area from the south, facing the Dangrek Mountains form the border with Cambodia. In Sakon Nakhon Basin - smaller waters flow (such as the Songkram ) flowing through a gently rolling landscape, which benefits from the relatively high amounts of rain falling here during the rainy season.

Due to the surrounding hills, the Khorat Plateau receives relatively little rainfall from the southwest monsoon. While the central region of Thailand adduced an average rainfall of 1,500 mm per year, the figure in the Khorat Plateau only 1.150 mm. Also, the contrast between the dry and the wet season is considerably sharper than in the rest of the country, which is why the yields of rice are much lower here.

The plateau has been inhabited since prehistoric times, as evidenced by numerous traces of human life. Archaeological excavations also show that there were many towns and territories that existed before the Dvaravati kingdom and later cultivated friendly relations with Angkor among the Khmer. The oldest known settlement is Phimai, which is considered the center of the old forces of the Khorat Plateau. The city was probably inhabited since the 3rd millennium BC and drew their wealth not only from agriculture but also from salt deposits and iron ore mines. Here was also long been a center of Mahayana Buddhism that flourished alongside the Khmer Hindu religion.

The settlements were typically surrounded by a moat and a dike, which provided for the necessary irrigation. This can now examine in Ban Sema and Ban Prasat, who were already settled before the ninth century. In Ban Prasat, there are even much older tracks that point to the cultivation of rice, more than 3,000 years ago.

Today the plateau is one of the main paleontological sites of interesting objects, such as the dinosaur Siamotyrannus isanensis, one of the ancestors of Tyrannosaurus rex. Finds are exhibited in a museum in Khon Kaen. Only eight of the 38 known prehistoric species of elephants have also been discovered here. Beginning of the 21st century have been found in this area continues to be a old way of orangutans.

15.666666666667103.16666666667Koordinaten: 15 ° 40 'N, 103 ° 10' O

  • Geography (Thailand)
  • Maha Sarakham Province
  • Nakhon Ratchasima Province
  • Surin Province
  • Yasothon Province
Mun River Chi River
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