Epic Travel → Asia & the South Pacific → Cambodia → Prasat Thom

Location: Koh Ker, Northern Cambodia

Time Required: 1 hour (once you’re in the Koh Ker area)

Red Tape/Notes:  Entry fee is $10 for all of Koh Ker, which you can pay at a booth 7 km from the entry to the site

What’s Nearby?: Prasat Krahom, Neang Khmao, Prasat Pram, Prasat Krachap

Prasat Thom is Koh Ker’s principle complex, and where you’ll find Koh Ker’s most notable structure: a well-proportioned seven-tiered step pyramid, called Prasat Prang (also known as “Koh Ker Temple”). Prasat Prang is thought to have served as the state temple. While the Khmer empire used step pyramid style architecture in many of their other temples, Prasat Prang is the only known example of a temple utilizing this style along (others included other features like stairways, or a tower at the top). Prasat Thom is architecturally interesting not only for the step pyramid, but also because its layout is a combination of linear and concentric forms, with compounds arranged one after the other. Its layout also shares some similarities with nearby Banteay Srei, which was built a few decades later. These are the only two known examples of intentional linear layout plans in Khmer architecture – other temples with linear layouts exist, but these temples are on slopes of hills, making a linear layout more of a necessity than a deliberate choice.

Epic Travel → Asia & the South Pacific → Cambodia → Prasat Thom