Preah Vihear

Prasat Preah Vihear (ប្រាសាទព្រះវិហារ) stands on the edge of the Dangrek escarpment at six hundred and twenty-five metres, where the rock falls away more than five hundred metres to the Cambodian plain. Almost every Khmer temple is laid out in concentric enclosures facing east, but this one runs eight hundred metres along a single north-south axis, following the rising ground through five gopuras linked by causeways and stairways so that the walk becomes an ascent towards the sanctuary at the summit. It was dedicated to Shiva as lord of the mountain heights, and the central shrine held his linga. Building began in the late ninth century under Yasovarman I and continued for three hundred years under Suryavarman I, Jayavarman VI and Suryavarman II among others. The escarpment is the border with Thailand, and the International Court of Justice confirmed Cambodian sovereignty over the temple in 1962. UNESCO inscribed it in 2008.