Death Railway.

"The notorious Burma-Siam railway, built by Commonwealth, Dutch and American prisoners of war, was a Japanese project driven by the need for improved communications to support the large Japanese army in Burma. During its construction, approximately 13,000 prisoners of war died and were buried along the railway. An estimated 80,000 to 100,000 civilians also died in the course of the project, chiefly forced labour brought from Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, or conscripted in Siam (Thailand) and Burma (Myanmar). Two labour forces, one based in Siam and the other in Burma worked from opposite ends of the line towards the centre."[1]

Taken on: 28th December, 2009. Copyright: All Rights Reserved - See konstantynowicz's page of Flickr

Read more about Kanchanaburi

For history, natural beauty, activities and accessibility, Kanchanaburi province is tough to beat. Located just 128 kilometres from Bangkok, Kan (as it's known to locals) is home to pristine national parks, cavernous caves, majestic rivers, lakes, waterfalls and temples. For many though, all this takes a backseat to the area's World War II history. Thousands of allied prisoners of war (POWs) and forced labourers lost their lives while building a Japanese military supply line known as the Death Railway, which cut through the province and linked Bangkok to Burma by way of a precarious and heavily bombed track.

Home to some 35,000 people, the provincial capital town of Kanchanaburi sits alongside the River Kwai (pronounced ‘khwae'), surrounded by sugarcane fields and dramatic mountains to the west. The town's signature landmark is a rail bridge built by POWs and made famous by the 1957 film, Bridge ... Read our complete Kanchanaburi travel guide

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