Mae Nam Khwae Yai

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Mae Nam Khwae Yai,
Khwae Yai, River Kwai
The bridge over the Kwai

The bridge over the Kwai

Data
location Thailand near the border with Myanmar
River system Mae Klong
Drain over Mae Klong  → Gulf of Thailand
source in the Tenasserim Mountains near the city of Umphang ( Tak Province )
16 ° 7 ′ 37 ″  N , 98 ° 41 ′ 23 ″  E
muzzle Confluence with the Khwae Noi to the Mae Klong near Kanchanaburi Coordinates: 14 ° 1 ′ 5 ″  N , 99 ° 31 ′ 40 ″  E 14 ° 1 ′ 5 ″  N , 99 ° 31 ′ 40 ″  E

length 380 km
Reservoirs flowed through Si Nakharin Dam

The Mae Nam Khwae Yai ( Thai : แม่น้ำ แคว ใหญ่ , pronunciation: [mɛ̂ː náːm kʰwɛː jàj] , "Great Tributary"; or just Khwae Yai , internationally known as the River Kwai ) is a river in the western part of central Thailand near the border with Myanmar ( formerly Burma). At Kanchanaburi it unites with the Khwae Noi and is called Mae Klong from then on . The Mae Klong flows into the Gulf of Thailand in the Samut Songkhram province .

The river became world-famous through the novel " The Bridge on the Kwai " by Pierre Boulle and its film adaptation by David Lean . Here prisoners of war were forced by the Japanese in 1942/1943 to build two parallel bridges over the river. The bridges belonged to the Thailand-Burma Railway , also called Death Railway ("Railway of Death"), a continuous railway line from Ban Pong Station on the Thai Southern Railway to Thanbyuzayat on the Burmese Southern Railway. This was part of preparations for a Japanese attack on British India during World War II . One bridge was constructed from wood, the other from concrete and steel. The latter still serves rail traffic today.

The name of the bridge was actually based on a misunderstanding: It led over the Mae Klong River, while the railway line mostly ran along the Khwae Noi (in English "Kwai"), from which the bridge's literary name was derived. In the 1960s, the upper reaches of the Mae Klong above Kanchanaburis was renamed Khwae Yai , so that the bridge now really crosses a river called the Khwae (or "Kwai").

The Si-Nakharin Dam dams the river to the Si-Nakharin Reservoir, which is located in the Chaloem Rattanakosin National Park .

Attractions

  • The Erawan waterfall is widely regarded as Thailand's most beautiful waterfall. It flows impressively over the rocks in seven cascades near the Erawan National Park .

  • The Erawan waterfall

  • Typical floating house on the Khwae Yai

  • Cemetery of the forced laborers killed while building the bridge

  • Part of the " Death Railway "

Movies