Bridge over the River Kwai

The River Kwai, more correctly Khwae Noi or Khwae Sai Yok is a river in western Thailand, near the border with Myanmar. It begins at the confluence of Ranti, Songkalia and Bikhli Rivers. At Kanchanaburi it merges with the Mae Klong river, which empties into the Gulf of Thailand at Samut Songkhram.

The river is widely known from the film The Bridge on the River Kwai, in which Australian, Dutch and British prisoners of war were forced by the Japanese to construct two parallel bridges spanning the river as part of the Burma Railway, also called the Death Railway for the many lives lost in its construction. One bridge was wooden and temporary. The other was made of concrete and steel and still exists.