Spean Toch

A small laterite bridge with 4 arches with sandstone balustrade. It is recorded as measuring 12 m long, 8 m wide and 2.8 m high. Interestingly, it features very basic arches (post and lintel style construction) and is not typical of the beautiful corbelled arches seen on nearly all of the bridges along this route. This may have been the difference between simple bridges that crossed streams and those that crossed rivers requiring more size and strength.

The wider area features several basins which one could wonder if they were all in service of road travellers. Are some related to temples long before the route’s establishment? Regardless, basins can give an indication of the capacity of the road for travellers and their elephants and horses.

Images 2021

Images 2024

Historical Notes

Spean Toch. This bridge is built about 3 kilometers to the east of Spean Ta Ong, on a stream flowing left of Stu’ng Ta Ong. It is composed of the usual elements of this type of construction. Its deck measured 7 meters wide between the sandstone cords supporting the completely overturned nagas guardrails, the debris of which litters the ground and the very face of the stream. The waters completely swept away the entire eastern half of the structure which was oriented east-west along its major axis.

Lajonquiere, 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..