Preah Khan

Preah Khan is a large 12th-century temple complex at Angkor, built as a Buddhist monastic and educational institution under King Jayavarman VII. It is expansive and includes enclosed galleries, libraries, and subsidiary shrines.

The temple complex offers long covered galleries, intricately carved lintels, and areas where trees and roots intertwine with the stonework, creating characteristic scenes of masonry and vegetation. The layout includes a central sanctuary and multiple concentric enclosures that visitors can walk through.

Construction dates to the late 12th century under Jayavarman VII, when the site was established as a temple and monastic center and dedicated to the king’s military victories and religious patronage. Portions were altered or modified in later centuries and the complex has undergone phased conservation.

Preah Khan lies within the Angkor archaeological park near Siem Reap, positioned northeast of the core Angkor Wat group.

• Jayavarman VII construction and layout: Built and expanded under Jayavarman VII, the site functions as a large, partly restored monastic-temple complex with both carved stonework and tree-rooted masonry.

What to See#

• Central sanctuary and galleries: Central sanctuary and galleried enclosures that form the main compound, showing carved lintels and pillars typical of late 12th-century Khmer architecture.
• Outer enclosures and causeways: Forest-fringed outer enclosures and approach causeways where detailed carvings and doorways are prominent features of the site.

Preah Khan is best walked straight through along its east-west axis. Ask your tuk-tuk driver to drop you at the eastern gopura and wait at the western one, then follow the temple’s own orientation from front to back.

The eastern approach. The eastern entrance faces the Jayatataka Baray, Jayavarman VII’s massive reservoir, dry for centuries but now partly re-flooded; a wooden deck on the left looks out over the baray, the site of the excavated boat platform that once gave access to Neak Pean. Heading west, a causeway is lined with square pillars bearing defaced Buddha images, chipped away in an anti-Buddhist backlash after Jayavarman’s death, before an elevated causeway crosses the moat flanked by gods and demons holding naga balustrades - like those at Angkor Thom but smaller.

The garuda wall. The causeway ends at a gopura piercing an imposing 5-metre laterite wall. Unique to Preah Khan, the enclosure is guarded by 72 sandstone garudas set every 50 metres along the wall, many restored; a trail runs along the outside if you wish to see more. Beyond the gate a forest path, home to indigenous birds, passes a small sandstone building thought to be one of Jayavarman’s rest-houses or a shrine to the Sacred Flame.

The Hall of Dancers. An elevated platform guarded by lions and garuda-topped nagas marks the temple proper, where the first and largest of the silk-cotton trees grip the towers. Passing through the third enclosure brings you into the Hall of Dancers, once roofed by the largest corbel vault ever built here and carved with the low-relief dancers who likely performed ritual dances. A doorway north leads to an unusual two-storey pavilion with circular columns - possibly the home of the sacred sword itself - beside a raised library platform good for a shaded rest.

The central sanctuary. Continuing west along the axis, look for inscriptions on the south-facing doorframes, which name the deity consecrated in the room beyond. After a tall, roofless chamber with a square pedestal comes a room whose cruciform corbel vault survives intact, seemingly held up by garudas at its upper corners and flanked by rows of small winged female figures; the walls carry a ten-armed dancing Shiva with his sons Ganesha and Skanda, and the foundation stela was found in the room just to the north. Beyond, a roofless passage leads to the central tower, its pillars and walls pocked with holes. Guides often say they held gems, but they anchored the bronze plating that once sheathed the sandstone (any jewels were set into the metal). Within the central tower, a stupa stands where the image of Lokesvara once did. It is still a highly sacred place, where Cambodians believe wishes made here come true.

The northern shrines. Shrines to Shiva, Vishnu and the ancestral spirits branch off to the north, west and south. Head north first, through a run of ever-smaller doorways: the Shiva shrine itself, behind the smallest, is bare, but just east of it a lintel over a west-facing doorway shows Vishnu reclining on the serpent Ananta as a lotus rises above him, the start of a new cosmic cycle, and just west of it another lintel shows Shiva dancing. The southern chambers are less rewarding and often closed off.

Towards the west gate. Back on the main axis, a small roofless courtyard has a wall of hermits meditating beneath jackfruit trees. Farther on, an empty pedestal once held statues of Rama, his brother Lakshmana and his wife Sita, as an inscription beside the door explains. The Vishnu shrine itself keeps only its yoni pedestal, now topped by a headless seated Buddha, and beyond its western door two headless guardians, a deva and an asura, still flank the way out. Exit through the west gopura and cross the final causeway of gods and demons.

Preah Khan - “sacred sword” - is a sprawling 12th-century temple complex and one of the grandest accomplishments of Jayavarman VII. It formed the centrepiece of Nagara Jayasri, the city that stood northeast of Angkor Thom, immediately west of the Jayatataka Baray, the last of the great reservoirs built by the kings of Angkor. Unlike most major temples built before Jayavarman’s reign, Preah Khan is not a temple-pyramid: like his other Buddhist foundations it was built at ground level along an east-west axis, with successive enclosures and gopuras leading to a central sanctuary.

A temple of rebirth. More than a temple, Preah Khan symbolised the rebirth of the kingdom after the reported destruction of Angkor by the Cham. It is thought to have been raised on the site of a legendary battle - inscriptions even mention a “lake of blood” from Jayavarman’s victory over the Cham king - and may have served as a temporary capital while Angkor Thom and the Bayon were still under construction.

A living university. When the temple was rediscovered in the early 20th century its foundation stela was found in situ, illuminating both the temple and its society. The central sanctuary housed an image of the bodhisattva Lokesvara in the likeness of Jayavarman’s father, Dharanindravarman II, while other chambers held shrines to Vishnu, Shiva, and the ancestral spirits of more than 500 people deified in their honour. Preah Khan also functioned as a religious “university” of 1,000 scholars - where Jayavarman’s second wife, Indradevi, may have served as chief Buddhist scholar - and the foundation stela records nearly 100,000 people living within the city walls, among them 1,000 dancers.

Preah Khan is inside the Angkor Archaeological Park and is reached from Siem Reap by the same park roads used for Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. Most visitors take a tuk‑tuk, taxi or bicycle; the ride from Siem Reap town typically takes about 20-30 minutes depending on traffic and the exact temple route. Vehicles drop visitors at the temple grounds with only a short walk from the roadside parking to the ruins.

• Go to Preah Khan at opening to explore its tangled corridors before guide groups arrive; the site's open, maze‑like layout and tree‑overgrown galleries are best experienced with fewer people.
• Venture beyond the main axis-the quieter peripheral galleries and courtyards reward slower exploration and often contain carvings and architectural details overlooked by visitors who stick to the central route.