Bei Temple (Preah Vihear)

Located in the southeast of Choam Khsant district of Preah Vihear, Prasat Bei is the remains of a group of three ancient square sandstone temples. The three towers open to the east and rise up on a common laterite platform. The final decorative carving of the site’s features was never fully completed, although it heralds one unique feature in that it does have decorated internal cornices. Two of the door columns are also partially completed.

The site appears to have remnants of a terrace or perhaps something else on the eastern side and much further to the east is a large basin that still carries water.

Roads leading to the site from Road 62 were in excellent condition as of 02/23.

Historical Notes

#286 Prasat Bei. This monument includes a group of three sanctuaries oriented N.-S.

These sanctuaries are in sandstone, square, open to the E. The central sanctuary measures 5 m. 50 of side inside, the lateral sanctuaries only 5 meters, They rise on a common base 1 m high. 50 and measuring 30 meters long by 11 meters wide, which provided access to a porch on each of the large faces. These buildings are fully constructed, but ornamental work has barely begun in some places. The flattening of the faces is only sketched out: the traces of picks having been used to roughen the blocks are still visible on the edges on the edges of the blocks, whose joints are however very clear. It seems that this decorative part had to receive a great development, judging by the few parts started here and there. We note, among other things, in the southern sanctuary a pretty cornice sculpture which was to decorate the interior entablature of the wall, at the fulcrum of the wooden ceiling.

The polygonal columns of the doors, and of the false doors, are only partly finished, supporting decorative lintels roughly finished.

Inventaire descriptif des monuments du Cambodge – E. Lunet de Lajonquière, 1902.

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..