Inside the cave, there are three caverns with many stalactites and stalagmites. The most beautiful cavern boasts the Khuha Kharuehat pavilion built on the orders of King Rama V. Phraya Nakhon Cave was visited by three Thai kings. On the north wall of the cave are inscriptions from two of them. King Rama V’s monogram Jor Por Ror is on the right, whereas King Rama VII’s monogram Por Por Ror is on the left. Try to find them and see which is which.
Inside the cave, you will be able to see stalagmites, stalactites, poisonous plants and bizarre-shaped rocks, including one which resembles a crocodile. King Rama V ordered the construction of this pavilion to commemorate his visit to Phraya Nakhon Cave on June 20, 1890. This pavilion was built by 200 craftsmen from Bangkok, who were transported to the cave and supervised by leading engineer Phraya Chollayudhyuthin. The king himself opened and named the pavilion Phra Thinang Khuha Kharuehat although there is no record of a second visit to the cave so this may have happened in Bangkok when the pavilion was first constructed there.
More about King Chulalongkorn and Khao Sam Roi Yot.
The young Rama V visited Khao Sam Roi Yot with his father, King Mongkut in 1867 with a group of European astronomers to view a total solar eclipse. The King, who was an admirer of Western science predicted the time more accurately (by a couple of seconds) than the French astronomers. However that journey to the marshes and swamps of Khao Sam Roi Yot was probably the death of him and nearly that of his son too, as they both contracted malaria. King Mongkut died a few months later and his son came near to death before eventually making a recovery ruling first with a Regent, and being crowned in his own right as king on 16 November 1873. Due to his father's admiration of Western science and culture, King Chulalongkorn had European tutors including Anna Leonowens, whose memoirs were dramatised in the banned (due its depiction of King Mongkut) musical The King and I. King Chulalongkorn continued the reforms started by his father and is still revered today for modernising and reforming Thai society and in particular for the abolition of the corvee system of slavery and of the use of torture in the judicial system. He also abolished the practice of prostration (crawling on the floor) in front of the monarch. As was the custom at the time, King Chulalongkorn had numerous consorts and concubines (estimated at 116) and fathered with them 33 sons and 44 daughters.
​