The city of Chiang Mai used to be completely surrounded by a moat and wall that made it an important strategic point in the north of Thailand. These days, most of the wall is gone, but some remains and are wildly popular with tourists.
Tha Phae Gate is one of the highlights and has loads of people there day and night. Unfortunately for me, it was more of a situation of "ok great... a wall."
I'm not trying to say that this is not historically important because it is. It dates back to the 13th century and that is always something i find an interest in. The problem I have with it is that i have seen them "restoring" it and it doesn't appear as though there is any sort of archaeological accuracy to it.
I sat (today actually) accross the street from a portion that was being rebuilt and saw stacks of bricks that were being piled back up in what appeared to be just completely random formation. When people want historical accuracy, I am not going to pretend how that works, but I am sure it involves more than just tossing a random brick to a builder and having them put it just wherever. To be honest I doubt the authenticity of the bricks at all.
I guess it doesn't matter because who is gonna check? Even if they did what is the likelihood that anyone is going to cry foul. It is an impressive structure and given the time period I can completely understand how no one would be able to climb over it.
Today so little of it remains that it is really more of a tourist trap and since it is Thailand there is a market there selling the usual junk as well.
I'm not saying you are a loser if you buy this stuff because I have purchased it as well. Please don't believe anyone that attempts to tell you that there is any sort of valuable gear for sale ehre because I can all but guarantee you that virtually everything (if not literally everything) is mass-produced knock-off stuff from primarily China.
To add to the irony of this market, a vast majority of the visitors are actually Chinese because of Chiang Mai's proximity to China and they are the ones buying the stuff. I don't understand why they don't just buy it back in China.
you will not see this advertised anywhere but the wall, for the most part is gone. It has been allowed to deteriorate or perhaps been intentionally torn down to make way for more roads. It really has not been terribly well-preserved. The famous Tha Phae Gate is around 100 meters long and has a door (gate) and on both sides of it there is nothing.
If you find yourself in Chiang Mai and want to go look at it, i would recommend doing so in the daytime because at night you almost can't even get near it because of the market that I think it just a damn eyesore of essentially garbage for sale.