Phnom Pros and Phnom Srei

Just outside Kampong Cham rise a pair of twin hills, Phnom Pros and Phnom Srei, meaning Man Hill and Woman Hill, each crowned with Buddhist temples and offering panoramic views. A 308-step walkway climbs Phnom Srei, the higher of the two, from where you can see the summit of Phnom Pros, reached by a dirt trail.

Legend explains the names. Men and women from a nearby village once argued over which sex should have to propose marriage, and agreed to settle it by each building a hill in a single day, the taller winning. During the night the women tricked the men into thinking they had given up; the men, believing themselves victorious, drank and passed out, while the women kept building until dawn and won.

The hilltop temples are the main draw, but between the two summits lie killing fields, one of Cambodia’s many Khmer Rouge mass-grave sites. They can be visited with a local guide who can explain this grim chapter of the area’s history.