Preah Phnom Temple

Preah Phnom temple is located in Angkor Chum District of Siem Reap Province, about 65km from Siem Reap city. It is a group of five square brick temples set on a large rise with two annex buildings or ‘libraries’, and moat (dry and partly consumed by farmland), and large basin in the north. Interestingly, from a walk-around, no remnants of a wall or entry gopura are seen which would be standard fare for such a site.

The central tower featured a two-line inscription registered under K. 454 plus inscriptions K 593 and 594 are from this site.

Of the five towers, the front three are in the best condition and they can be seen to have at least three false floors, set with false doors albeit very eroded. Lintels are still in place but likewise, almost lost to erosion and damage.

The two library buildings are mostly in ruin and covered in overgrowth (06/21).

Other sandstone remnants around the site

The site can be reached by very reasonable sealed roads from Siem Reap via Pouk > Angkor Chum > Khol and a good section, about 6km, of dirt road from the northwestern side of Khol to the temple (06/21). Also, south of here in the Khol area is the Kdei Ta Kom group including several temples and ancient bridges.

Historical Notes

Prah Phnom (The Holy Mountain). The temple which we designate by this name rises on a natural mound oriented E-W. at the foot of which, in the N., a large rectangular lobök has been built which measures approximately 100 meters E.-W. on 400 N.-S. It must be located approximately 3 kilometers to the E. of the Angkor Thom-Spean Top main route.

It is a group of five square brick sanctuaries, regularly arranged on two parallel lines N.-S. and oriented to the E. The three buildings in the first row are of different dimensions; that of the center (fig. 95), which measures 5 by 5 meters on the façade, projects a little to the E. on common alignment; the others, 8 m away from it. 70 from axis to axis, are only 4m.50 by 4 m. 50 facade width; they are also lower than the central sanctuary. The two sanctuaries in the second row, of even smaller dimensions, measure only 4 m. 20 on m. 30 and are 2 meters apart face to face from those in the first row.

All of them are distinguished, by their careful construction and their state of conservation, from the so ruined sanctuaries of the region; their four-sided corbelled vaults, interrupted internally by straight parts, are still in place up to approximately 1 meter below their probable summit; their exterior stands are however partly ruined. The angles of these tiers were marked by acroteria, a sort of terminals with an undecorated acute top and held in the brick masonry by long tenons. All the door frames are still in place with their decorative pieces, octagonal columns ringed with moldings and decorative lintels. Of the figures of deities which decorated these, hardly anything remains recognizable than that of Indra on the three-headed elephant, constituting the central motif of the panel of the main sanctuary; the others were ellaceated; However, we can give as a characteristic of the decoration of these lintels the crampedness of certain other figures which have survived in the ornamentation.

Two piles of bricks indicate the location of two annex buildings, regularly arranged and oriented. Fragments of statues and pedestals are placed in the sanctuaries of the first row and, in front, the pieces of a large Nandin.

Inventaire descriptif monuments du Cambodge, E. Lajonquiere, 1901

Inscriptions

• K. 454 – 2 lines of Sanskrit – IC III, p. 121
• K. 593 – 4 lines of Sanskrit – IC III, p. 120
• K. 594 – 15 lines of Sanskrit – IC III, p. 120

2024 Revisit

Rodney Charles LHuillier

Living in Asia for over a decade and now residing in beautiful Siem Reap. Rodney Charles L'Huillier has spent over seven years in Cambodia and is the author of Ancient Cambodia (2024) and Essential Siem Reap (2017, 2019). Contact via [email protected] - more..