Preah Khan

Preah Khan was built in 1191 by King Jayavarman VII on the site of his victory over the Chams and dedicated to the memory of his father. The huge complex worked at once as a Buddhist monastery, a university and a town: the inscriptions on its stele mention almost a hundred thousand attendants and a thousand teachers. The plan is built around a long axis of doorways set one inside another, narrowing towards the central sanctuary with its stupa. Restorers deliberately left part of the walls under tree roots, so the temple looks almost the same as it did when it was found. The complex lies north of Angkor Thom and takes about an hour to walk through.

On the map