Sambor prei kuk is an UNESCO world Heritage site and the capital of pre – ankor era . It is the second capital of the Khmer kingdom after Vat phou area . Most of the structures in this complex were build between 7 th – 9 th century in the time of chelna empire . King Isanavarman 1 established this city and build the temples of northern and southern group by himself . Most of the temples were build by the brick and limestone and deity were mostly hindu god . Durga ,shiva , ganesha , vishnu , Bhrambha and saraswati are the deity in those temples but now a days lots of temple has Buddha statue inside .
Temple to visit inside sambor prei kuk :
Prasat Sambor :
Prasat sambor was build by the Chelna king Isanavarman 1 in the year (616 – 637) . This North group temple is one of the oldest temple in sambor prei kuk . Most of the temples has either rectangular or octangular base towers .
In this place there is central tower establishing a buddha statue and in the four corner there are four towers dedicated to Durga , Harihara , Bhrambha and Vajimukha( some avatar of Vishnu ) . You can see some of the statues were broken or without head .
Yeah Puon :
Yeah Puon is the major temple in the southern group and was build by the king Ishanavarman I in the year (616 – 637 CE). This temple has two surrounding walls . In the western side of the inner wall there is 72 relief in the wall inside a circle about the hindu mythological stories .
Main temple inside this area is 25 meter in height and made on a rectangular base . This main temple is dedicated to Prahashiteshvara ( smiling shiva ) . With this , there were other deity like Bhrambha , Shiva , Harihara , Nandi , Golden Linga and Saraswati .
Lion Temple or Prasat Tao :
Prasat Tao is a central group of temple . In this temple , there were sculpture of monolithic lions on the both side of the entrance stairway . There were all together 6 lions except the western side . For that reason this temple is called the lion temple . Above the door there were lintels of pre kameng era (635- 700 CE ).
There were two surrounding walls in this temple complex and inside the inner complex there were 12 towers , although among them most of them were ruins . The central tower is 20 meter in height and was build in between 7- 8 th century .
tree temple :
I don’t know the name of this temple but this is one of the impressive temple inside sambor pre kuk . A whole tree was grown above this small temple and the roots covered the whole temple .
You can visit the impressive temple beside the road , in between the Ticket booking office and the Prasat sambor .
How to visit sambor prei kuk ?
Sambor prei kuk is situated 30 km from the kampong thom city . Most of the hotels and accommodation are situated in this city . Near to the archeological sites you may get some home stays but not a proper hotel . There is no public transport system toward the archeological site of sambor prei kuk . So either , you have to rent a motorbike or bicycle or hire a tuk tuk .
I hire a motorbike for the return journey from the kampong thom city . It cost 10 USD for reaching there and come back . The motor bike is suppose to enter inside the site but he reluctant so I have to walk . Inside the archeological park , It is quiet some distance from one temple to another . So you have to walk a lot . Inside the park there were no tarmac road .
When you enter this place better to bring mosquito repel ant cream , because there was too much mosquito inside the jungle . Also bring lots of water as you sweat too much inside this jungle .
Ticket of sambor prei kuk :
For visiting sambor prei kuk you(Foreigner) have to buy a ticket from the ticket counter . For cambodian people entry is free but for foreigner ticket price is $ 10 USD for adult for a day .
I paid in Cambodian rial . They charged me 42000 Cambodian rial for one ticket .
Summary :
sambor pre kuk is a archeological area and capital before Ankor age . The temple inside this area are build between 7 th – 9 th century . This archeological area is situated near to the kampong thom city between the siem reap and capital phnom penh .Ticket for the foreigner is 10 USD .
