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Aurora Contributor Carol Barrington photograph was featured on the cover of Newsweek International. Carol’s image is of the beautiful ruins of Ayutthaya, a Thai kingdom that existed from 1351 to 1767. Today it is a historical park, and among its treasures are these heads at Wat Mahathat. (From Wickipedia:) “King Ramathibodi I (Uthong) founded Ayutthaya as the capital of his kingdom in 1351 and absorbed poor Sukhothai, 640 km to the north, in 1376. Over the next four centuries the kingdom expanded to become the nation of Siam,whose borders were roughly those of modern Thailand, except for the north, the Kingdom of Lannathai. Ayutthaya was friendly towards foreign traders, including the Chinese, Vietnamese (Annam), Indians, Japanese and Persians, and later the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and French, permitting them to set up villages outside the city walls. The court of King Narai (1656-1688) had strong links with that of King Louis XIV of France, whose ambassadors compared the city in size and wealth to Paris. When Ayutthaya fell to Burmese attack in 1767, its territory included the Northern Shan states of Burma, Lanna (Chiang Mai), Yunnan & Shan Sri (China), Lan Xiang (Laos), Cambodia, South Vietnam and some of Malaya.

To view more images from Carol Barrington, visit Aurora Photos.