Doi Inthanon

Where is Doi Inthanon?

Doi Inthanon is part of the Thanon Thong Chai Range.

You will find it in: Thailand.

Summit: 18.587° N, 98.487° E

The story behind it

Doi Inthanon is the top of a long ridge in northern Thailand, and its name remembers a ruler of the old kingdom of Lanna who asked that the forest here be protected. The mountain is wrapped in a national park: streams tumble down in wide waterfalls, mosses and orchids hang from the branches, and rare birds that live nowhere else in the country nest in the damp woods near the summit. Because the air cools as it rises, the top can drop close to freezing in the cold season, and thin frost sometimes glitters on the grass in the early morning, which surprises visitors in a tropical country. Hmong and Karen families farm the slopes and grow vegetables, coffee and flowers in the cool ground. Two tall brick towers built for a king and a queen stand on a shoulder below the summit, surrounded by gardens.

Find it on the globe

Doi Inthanon is there as a small peak with its own shape — a horn, a ridge, a volcano — standing on the surface. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.