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Sunken City · Boat / seasonal walk

Wat Saam Prasob, the Sunken Temple

Flooded 1984 · seasonal, Khao Laem Reservoir, Sangkhla Buri, Thailand
ACCESSIBLE
Evidence status: Historical tradition. no documented source (historical tradition); legal status unknown (manual verification recommended). This account is presented as historical tradition, not verified fact. Manual verification recommended. Repository evidence: 0 sources · 0 timeline events · 0 media items · legal unknown · view on the Map Evidence on file: historical tradition

Wat Saam Prasob, the Sunken Temple: still unexplained.

A Mon temple that rises and sinks with the monsoon

The law of this ground: Open to visitors, by boat at high water, on foot in the dry season; a living shrine, treated as sacred.
The subject
The manifest
A Mon temple that rises and sinks with the monsoon
The account

When the Khao Laem Dam filled, it drowned a whole town and its temple, and the people climbed to a hill to rebuild. The old shrine never left. In the wet season only its spire breaks the water, reached by longtail boat; in the dry months the reservoir falls and you can walk in through the doors the Mon and Karen built, the Buddha still seated where the village left him.

Leads, where the trail points now
  • Pin down the most specific last-known position in the record before going; the search centers on Khao Laem Reservoir, Sangkhla Buri, Thailand.
  • What you are chasing is A Mon temple that rises and sinks with the monsoon. Work the documented record of Wat Saam Prasob, the Sunken Temple back to primary sources and separate what is attested from folklore.
  • Open to visitors, by boat at high water, on foot in the dry season; a living shrine, treated as sacred.
What the record holds

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
What we know, and what we don't
Established

No documentary claim is yet established. The account rests on tradition.

Still open
  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
The evidence room

No documentary or visual exhibits have been located yet. The trail below and the open leads are where this dossier grows next — every exhibit that enters here carries a source.

Where the trail points now
  • Pin down the most specific last-known position in the record before going; the search centers on Khao Laem Reservoir, Sangkhla Buri, Thailand.
  • What you are chasing is A Mon temple that rises and sinks with the monsoon. Work the documented record of Wat Saam Prasob, the Sunken Temple back to primary sources and separate what is attested from folklore.
  • Open to visitors, by boat at high water, on foot in the dry season; a living shrine, treated as sacred.
  • Search Library of Congress + DPLA (IIIF) for period cartography of the site.
  • Run Chronicling America for dated newspaper mentions.
  • Query NARA for archival records tied to the site.

Have a source, a map, or a clipping? Add a lead and it enters the record with its citation.

Start the hunt here
The first leads, so no one walks in cold.
Sources and the record
Related case files

The full hunt kit

Starting brief, what's known and disputed, evidence timeline, source list, map card, coordinate-confidence and legal-access summaries, and a field checklist, free with a Fellowship account.

Latest Word From the Newswire

Context, not proof. The dossier's own sources remain the evidence record.

Checking the wire…

Chart position 15.155°, 98.452° (approx.) View on the Map