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Sambor Prei Kuk
By Michael D. Coe

I suppose every archaeologist has his or her likes and dislikes among the ruins that they study or guide tourists to, and these often have nothing to do with the size or accessibility of these sites. For example, like many other archaeologists I love Palenque and Copan, while the far larger and much more famous Chichén Itzá leaves me cold. Other sites grip me because they lead me to daydream about just what I’d do there if I had a large project and unlimited funds to carry it out, as well as being 50 years younger…

In Cambodia, Sambor Prei Kuk is just such a place, even though I know I’ll never work there, certainly not in this life. To get there from Angkor, you have to sit in a bus or hired car for many, many hours over a road that varies from bad to ghastly; this is National Route 6, leading in a southeasterly direction to the city of Kampong Thom and thence to Siem Reap. Under the French regime, this was once the finest highway in Southeast Asia. While being jolted around by potholes, you may not realize that you cross bridge after bridge constructed of laterite during the heyday of the Angkor Empire. Halfway to Kampong Thom is Speam Prap Tos, the greatest of the ancient corbel-arched bridges, still carrying heavy traffic today. Don’t miss it!

Another couple of equally poor roads take you 35 kms. north to Sambor Prei Kuk, “the hillock in the forest of Sambor”. This was once the capital of the kingdom of Ishanapura, founded in the early seventh century A.D. by King Ishanavarman, “Protected by the Lord Who Is Big”, i.e. by the god Shiva, lord of the royal house in ancient Cambodia. In that early age, long before the founding of Angkor, the country was divided into a number of contesting kingdoms, and Ishanavarman’s was the greatest.

The huge site consists of over 175 brick towers arranged into four groups. Some of these are merely crumbling foundations, some are being grasped and apparently torn apart by the root systems of trees and others but low mounds. Inside each is usually a single shrine, the room rising impressively to a very tall corbel arch, as memorable as the Tomb of Atreus at Mycenae. The outer walls are equally striking, carved in bas-relief with so-called “flying palaces”, each one a miniature palace façade with people or deities looking out the “windows”. Over the door leading to the inner temple was always a sandstone lintel showing bands emanating from the mouths of water monsters and swagged garlands of flowers.

 

 

Actually, all of the wonderful brick wall carving was once completely covered with stucco and painted, remnants of which can still be seen on the friezes of winged horses and other animals at the base of the “flying palaces”.

Sambor Prei Kuk suffered grievous damage during the U.S. bombing carried out as part of the Nixon-Kissinger “Secret War” in Cambodia, and later during Pol Pot’s reign of terror, but help is on the way. In the past few years, an archaeological team from a Japanese university has been mapping and conserving the buildings before they fall even further, and the Sumitomo Foundation has donated 2 million yen towards the city’s restoration.

This was once one of Southeast Asia’s glories, flourishing centuries before Angkor was even thought of. One can see its influence all over Cambodia and as far afield as Wat Phou in Laos; and some of the greatest sculptures in the National Museum in Phnom Penh, such as the sinuous Goddess Durga, were carved at Sambor Prei Kuk.

By all means try and see this amazing place. See Sambor Prei Kuk with Dr. Coe on a Far Horizons trip to Cambodia and Laos. And don’t miss his recently published, Angkor and the Khmer Civilization.