Where it sits
Preah Vihear runs along the Dangrek escarpment in the north, bordering Thailand and Laos. It is thinly populated, heavily forested in parts, and holds a density of major Angkorian-era monuments out of all proportion to how few visitors reach them.
Preah Vihear Temple
Prasat Preah Vihear sits on a promontory of the Dangrek mountains at around 525 metres, looking out over the Cambodian plain. Built over two and a half centuries from the early eleventh, it is dedicated to Shiva and laid out along an 800-metre north–south axis of successive gopuras rather than as a concentric temple-mountain — an arrangement unique at this scale.
It was inscribed by UNESCO in 2008. Sovereignty over the temple and the land around it has been the subject of long-running dispute with Thailand, settled in Cambodia’s favour at the International Court of Justice in 1962 and again in 2013. The border area has seen periods of closure and tension, so check current access before travelling.
Koh Ker and Preah Khan of Kompong Svay
Koh Ker was briefly the capital of the Khmer empire in the tenth century under Jayavarman IV, and its seven-tiered pyramid, Prasat Thom, is unlike anything at Angkor. It became Cambodia’s fourth UNESCO World Heritage site in 2023.
Preah Khan of Kompong Svay — Prasat Bakan — is the largest temple enclosure ever built by the Khmer, sprawling and almost entirely unvisited, deep in the forest in the south of the province.
Wildlife
The Kulen Promtep Wildlife Sanctuary in the west supports some of the last populations of giant ibis — Cambodia’s national bird — and white-shouldered ibis. Community-run birding trips operate out of Tmatboey.