Sambor Prei Kuk
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How it came to be
Sambor Prei Kuk, in Cambodia, takes its Khmer name from "the temple in the richness of the forest". It has been identified as Ishanapura, capital of the Chenla kingdom, which flourished in the late 6th and early 7th centuries. Isanavarman I, who reigned from 616 to 637, made it his capital, and in 616–617 he sent his first embassy to the court of the Sui dynasty in China.
The northern and southern groups date from the 7th century and are attributed to Isanavarman I; an inscription dated 13 September 627 records the founding of the main temple of the northern group. The central group is later, probably 9th century. The site holds more than a hundred brick temples, among them octagonal ones found nowhere else in Southeast Asia. Their carved sandstone lintels and pediments define the "Sambor Prei Kuk style", which laid the foundation for Khmer art of the Angkor period.
After the 1970 coup, US aircraft bombed Khmer Rouge positions inside the site, leaving craters near the temples, and the mines the guerrillas left were cleared only in 2008. The temple zone, about 840 ha, was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 2017.
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