Phu Kum Khao

Phu Kum Khao is approximately 29 kilometres northward of the city center of Kalasin Province. The tourists can go there by taking the highway number 227 (Kalasin- Sahatsakhan- Kham Muang- Wang Sam Mo- Phang Khon). Around 3 kilometres before the city center of Amphoe Sahatsakhan, turn right to Wat Sakkawan, next to Sahatsakhan Suksa School, for about 300 metres. The tourists will arrive at where the dinosaur fossils are. Phu Kum Khao is the most abundant habitat of the herbivorous dinosaurs in Thailand. Bones from almost the whole body of the dinosaurs, piling with bones of few types of herbivorous dinosaurs, are found in the stone layer at the mountain slope that looks like the cone-shaped cover for keeping food away from flies. It is 200 metres high at the west side and is around 240 metres high at the east side. The building over the excavating hole covers the area of around 700 square metres; whereas, the hole beneath the building is 280 square kilometres. In the area next to it, a building of Phu Kum Khao museum is constructed, covering 8,800 square metres, as a place for the geologists from all over the world to do research and as a tourist attraction of the province. Sirindhorn Museum or Phu Kum Khao Dinosaur Excavation Site is the complete and largest museum and research center about dinosaurs in the Southeast Asia. The museum was named “Sirindhorn Museum” after Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn. The exhibition inside the museum can be divided into 3 parts-the origin of the world, the origin of all creatures including dinosaurs and the origin of human beings, and the traveling exhibitions. The museum is located at the foothill of Phu Kum Khao in Sahatsakhan District. The tourists can go along Kalasin- Sahatsakhan route (the highway number 227) for approximately 28 kilometres. 2 kilometres before Sahatsakhan, turn right at the intersection for another 1 kilometre. The area of Phu Kum Khao, which was formerly the area in Wat Sakkawan, is where a number of dinosaur bones, as well as the dinosaur skeletons-both the complete ones buried underground and the ones dug out by the Department of Mineral Resources officers, are discovered. Sirindhorn Museum is open every day (both weekdays and holidays) from 8.30 a.m.- 5.30 p.m. There is now no admission fee until the inauguration of the museum. For more information, contact 0 4387 1014.