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Thailand: View from inside the City of Chiang Mai towards a city gate. From Le Tour Du Monde (Paris), 1885.

King Mengrai founded the city of Chiang Mai (meaning "new city") in 1296, and it succeeded Chiang Rai as capital of the Lanna kingdom. Chiang Mai sometimes written as "Chiengmai" or "Chiangmai", is the largest and most culturally significant city in northern Thailand.