Pyramids of Cambodia on the map. Pyramids of Cambodia. Royal Palace Prasat Thom

Address: 120 km from Siem Reap, Cambodia
Height: 32 m
Base side length: 55 m
Date of construction: X century n. e.

If you are beckoned mystical places from very ancient and mysterious story, The Pyramid of Death, located in the vicinity of Angkor (90 km in a northeast direction), fits this definition well. This is one of the oldest buildings in the city, and many extreme sports enthusiasts come to see it every year. It dates back to the 10th century. n. e. and is located on the territory of the city of Koh Ker, which has long disappeared from the face of the earth. From 921 to 941, during the reign of Jayavarman IV, it was the capital of the Khmer Empire. Then the capital was moved to Angkor, and Koh Ker with all its monumental temple buildings fell into disrepair.

What is the Pyramid of Death famous for?

The Pyramid of Death, or Prasat Thom, is located in the inner enclosure of the city. It is slightly shifted towards the city center to the north. It is believed that the temple was supposed to symbolize Mount Meru, erected from the World Ocean. That is why the sanctuary, like most Khmer temples, is surrounded by a moat with water. At the moment, this temple complex is considered not to be fully explored. Key facts that travelers should know about the Death Pyramid in Cambodia are:

The pyramid has seven steps, and seven, as you know, is a sacred number in the Buddhist religion, meaning the transition from our time dimension to non-existence.
It is believed that this temple complex was supposed to be used as a tomb for Jayavarman IV, but this did not happen for unknown reasons.
The dimensions of the pyramid are impressive: its height is 32 m, and the length of each side is 55 m. As follows from the inscriptions preserved here, there was a huge lingam on its top. Researchers estimate that its size was approximately 4 m and it weighed about 24 tons.
All six tiers of the sanctuary are abundantly overgrown with vegetation, but there are walking platforms from which it is very convenient to explore the surroundings.
Previously, people climbed to the top of the pyramid using a wooden ladder, but now it has been destroyed. Even earlier, they climbed to the top of the pyramid along ancient stone steps, but for Europeans this was extremely inconvenient. This was explained by the fact that the height of the steps was much greater than their width, so when climbing, you had to pull yourself up with your hands. Only selected priests climbed to the top of the pyramid, so there was no talk of comfort for the majority here. In March 2014, a new, more convenient staircase was built to the right of the main entrance to the temple.
Entrance to the territory ancient temple is paid: tourists are charged $10 per person.
There are practically no sculptures left on the territory of the temple complex: they were either destroyed or transported to museums. Now you can see mainly pedestals there, as well as the miraculously surviving head of the sacred bull Nandina.
The top of the pyramid is guarded by an image of garuda, the mythical bird of the god Vishnu, carved on a stone block.
The megalithic blocks of the pyramid's masonry fit almost perfectly, there are no gaps between them, and the side surface of the blocks themselves is very smooth, as if it had been processed with a grinding machine. The outer side of the masonry has traces of manual processing.
The temple received its second name - Pyramid of Death in Koh Ker - because of its bloody history. It is believed that once one of the ancient kings worshiped the dark god Mara, to whom people were sacrificed, throwing them while still alive into the pyramid shaft. According to one version, this mine was a portal between worlds, according to the second, it was a gateway to hell itself. Now it is an ordinary well, covered with wooden boards. It is located at the bottom of a square structure built from stone blocks with holes punched in them. Local residents prefer to avoid Prasat Thom, claiming that even animals and birds do not settle in the vicinity of the sanctuary.
According to legend, the top of the Pyramid of Death was previously decorated with a 5-meter golden statue. But when French researchers discovered Prasat Thom, she was no longer there, so scientists assumed that she fell into the mine. It is not possible to verify this, since many of those who tried to go down into it went missing. They say that at a depth of 15 meters, any equipment stops functioning there, even a flashlight, and safety ropes break. The holes that they tried to punch in the pyramid itself also did not reveal the mystery of the disappearance of people. In 2010, Russian diggers tried to explore the mine, but at a depth of 8 meters it was already covered with fresh earth.

How to visit?

Getting to the Death Pyramid in Cambodia is not too difficult: it is located 120 km from, so the trip will take you about 3 hours. The area here is quite deserted, and mines from the Civil War were often found, so it became possible to explore this attraction only relatively recently. there is no service here, so tourists have to either get there by car or rent a vehicle such as a minibus. The latter option will cost an average of $100.

Koh Ker is ancient temple city in northeast Cambodia. Perhaps due to its mystical history, this landmark of the Khmer Empire is undeservedly forgotten: the city was opened to tourists not so long ago, there is no full-fledged high-quality road, the minefields around have not been completely cleared - therefore there are relatively few tourists there.

Koh Ker has been open to the public only since 2002. But at one time Koh Ker was the capital of Cambodia for almost twenty years. Despite such a short period, about a hundred temples and sanctuaries were built on the territory of the city.

Koh Ker was founded by King Jayavarman the fourth. He did not have the right of direct inheritance (although at that time maternal inheritance was still possible) and made his claim to the throne, bypassing the direct heir. As a result, the throne was seized by force. According to legend, Jayavarman the fourth, in order to gain power, was forced to make a deal with the devil himself, who demanded human sacrifices in exchange for power.

Such actions were impossible within the capital that existed at that time, and the king decided to found his own city and declare it the capital. It is unknown how true all this was, but he really was one of the most cruel Khmer rulers, and after his death a few years later the capital was moved back to Angkor - they say the residents did not want to live in the city that the king founded in collusion with the demon.

Koh Ker was built on the artificial reservoir Rohal; the proximity of the reservoir is important for human civilization, so it was unthinkable to build a city without water. Temples were built in honor of the god Shiva - Hinduism was the dominant religion then. Who knows, maybe Jayavarman the fourth was in cahoots with the devil, but in any case, the number of buildings erected in such a short time in Koh Ker is amazing - in no other ancient city this was not observed. The most famous and best preserved structures of Koh Kera are Prasat Thom, Prasat Krahom and Prasat Prang.

Seven-tier pyramid Prasat Tom on the territory of Koh Kera remains the most mysterious and enigmatic to this day. Most of the tourists coming to Koh Ker want to see it. Associated with her mystical legend: allegedly it was the shatha in the center of this pyramid that was the “link” between earth and hell.

Jayavarman the fourth threw his subjects into this mine, thus making sacrifices to his demon. The width of the base of the pyramid is 55 meters, height - 32 m. For the safety of tourists, the staircase leading to the top of the pyramid is closed. There are rumors that people who go down the pyramid shaft lose their minds and can no longer continue to live their previous lives. In its structure, the pyramid is similar to similar structures for sacrifice of other ancient peoples; its sides are located strictly in the cardinal directions.
Prasat Prang is a small temple, you can get around it in literally 10-15 minutes. Tourists are rarely seen here, so you will have an amazing opportunity to take “clean” photographs. The temple structures are poorly preserved, and this is no coincidence: as in Ta Prohm, trees occupied the territory everywhere.

Pyramid of Death (Prasat Thom). Koh Ker. Cambodia.

I visited Cambodia in November, in this report I’ll tell you about Prasat Thom - this is a 35-meter seven-tier pyramid.

Lost in the jungles of Preah Vihear province in the north of the country, formerly known as Chok Gargyar, which means Island of Glory, the Koh Ker area has about 100 temples. Most of the ruins have been found in the jungle and cleared of mines, but there are still a lot of mines in the area, so it's dangerous to go off the roads!
This area is much older than the well-known Angkor Wat, since Koh Ker is the very first capital of the Khmer state of antiquity, and later it was moved to Angkor.

Inaccessible to tourists until 2002, the temples of Koh Ker still look like they were just discovered in the jungle.
On an area of 35 sq. km. there are religious buildings, among which is a pyramid, so reminiscent of Mesoamerican... Prasat Thom translated from Khmer “ Great Temple».
Entrance to the temple complex costs $10 per person.

The pyramid itself is shrouded in legends; locals avoid it; for them it is a cursed place.
In ancient times, one of the kings was a fan of the cult of Mara and sacrificed living people by throwing them into the pyramid shaft; the shaft was something like a portal between worlds. In the case of the cult of Mary, the mine was the entrance to hell...

Around the pyramid we did not find a single bird or small living creature... we asked the aborigines, they confirmed that animals and birds do not get along in this place. We also didn’t hear any cicadas nearby.
The pyramid is located behind the inner, ancient fence in the very center of the forgotten city. Its height is 35 meters, and the length of the side of the base is 55 m. It is made of stone blocks, I tried to insert 100 bucks into the gaps between the blocks in places where the masonry was intact, but it didn’t work... Just in case, I took a small piece from the masonry, it can be used for analysis rocks, dating.... in many places there are very smooth joints, traces are visible outside the masonry self made, but on the sides, in the depths, the blocks have a very smooth surface. This can especially be seen in places where the masonry moved apart but was not subject to erosion or the influence of the environment was minimal.

Punched round holes were found in the masonry; they were punched; no traces of drilling were found.

A rotten wooden staircase leads to the top of the pyramid, which was built in our time on top of the destroyed ancient stone steps... we climbed it with great caution.

At the very top of the pyramid there is a mine, it is fenced with a flimsy wooden fence. Now the shaft of the pyramid is covered with rotten boards, overgrown with all sorts of greenery, I think these boards can be easily moved apart.

The tiers of the pyramid are overgrown with vegetation

Behind the pyramid there is a hill of similar size, all covered with trees and vines; according to local legend, this is the grave of a white elephant, an animal especially revered in Buddhism. The entrance to the hill is currently closed to outsiders, and they took great care with the fence, even hanging a sign with a picture.

All these prohibitions evoke thoughts of hidden knowledge, that there is something to look for there, and therefore the descendants of the priest-monks strenuously hide this from strangers... and even their fellow tribesmen (cursed place, etc.)

And here is a photo of the inner masonry and outer cladding of the pyramid for comparison (in the damaged area)

The guard below naturally does not allow access to the top of the pyramid... but in fact, he can be distracted for a minute while the main group storms ancient building. That's what we did.
Already at the peak of the pyramid we saw, like a guard, a carved garuda - the mythical bird of the god Vishnu. In ancient times, there was also a huge linga - a symbol of Shiva, the height of which was no less than 4 meters, and its weight was about 24 tons. Now all this lies in a rubble on the top of the structure. to see the stone sculptures in the rubble you need to be a small person...

Local legends say that there was originally a 5-meter golden statue at the top. But when a French expedition discovered Prasat Thom in 1930, there was nothing at the top... And since it is simply impossible to lower such a huge thing down without special mechanisms, they assumed that the statue fell into a shaft that gapes at the top of the mysterious pyramid.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to verify this. Everyone who went down inside the pyramid did not return back... (except! read below)
At a depth of 15 meters, all kinds of equipment stop working, even a flashlight, and the safety ropes on which people descended break...
It was not possible to get to the missing through the holes that the French tried to punch in the pyramid itself. The mystery of the pyramid remained unsolved. She remains like this to this day...
According to unverified information (I myself am not familiar with the participants in the descent)
In 2010, our Russian diggers finally descended into the pyramid - with professional equipment. It was discovered that the mine was filled with fresh earth at a depth of about eight meters.
Someone closed this strange portal from too curious eyes.
However, research by diggers has shown that the pyramid is hollow inside, that is, the shaft remains, only the entrance itself is blocked!

But where it leads, no one knows to this day... Since the local authorities practically do not guard the pyramid (a guard doesn’t count for appearances), I think it is possible to organize a descent into the pyramid shaft, the main criterion: to have climbing equipment, several physically strong men, a methane sensor, and of course a video camera with the ability to shoot at night....

In the video I have attached you can see all the interesting moments of walking around the pyramid, climbing it, as well as the nearby ancient buildings.

On this page:

During our five-year absence, Cambodia blossomed and became more beautiful, and our friends dragged us into the wilds of Angkor that we would never have gotten to on our own. So, meet the famous Koh Ker and his mysterious Pyramid Of death.

Now, after two obligatory Angkor circles, we went to even more remote complexes, where we haven’t really set foot yet Chinese tourist- in Koh Ker and Beng Melia.

How, how much and what to get to Koh Ker and Beng Melia

Koh Ker is located 120 km northeast of Siem Reap in a fairly deserted area that was recently declared a nature reserve. Due to its desolation and cowlessness, this area remains heavily mined to this day, and the largest temples were cleared and opened to the public only in 2011. The smaller ones were not cleared or opened, respectively.

You can only get to Koh Ker with your own transport, and this is one of the most expensive Angkor routes. This time the whole crowd of us traveled by minibus, and if for the Big Circle, for example, our driver wanted $35, then for Koh Ker we had to pay $100.

Angkor tickets to Koh Ker are not valid, you need to buy them additional ticket for $10. And in Beng Melia another $5.

"Pyramid of Death" Prasat Prang

Actually, Koh Ker is the same Khmer capital as the much more famous Angkor Thom or the city around Angkor Wat, for example. Numerous Khmer rulers built a carriage in such capitals, for which today’s descendants should be terribly grateful to them.

The highlight of the Koh Kera program, because of which everyone trudges here from Siem Reap for 3.5 hours one way, is the pyramid, famous in narrow circles of lovers of Cambodia and aliens. The main temple of the magnificent capital was indeed built in the 9th century in the form of a regular stepped pyramid, very similar to the Inca pyramids. They write that they are located in exactly opposite parts of the planet. Who has a globe?

Neither before nor after Koh Ker did the Khmers build such pyramids, everyone continues. In fact, they built it: in Angkor there is a similar temple, Baksei Chamkrong, although it is not as large. But the pyramid is indeed very unusual for the Khmers. Like this:

For that matter, the Egyptians also first built step pyramids, both in Mesopotamia and here in Moscow right on Red Square, ahem, I got distracted.

Another difference between the pyramid and other Khmer temples, and according to some, evidence of the participation of alien intelligence, is the quality of finishing of the stone blocks facing the pyramid. These blocks are really well polished and still fit very tightly to each other. Up close, it resembles the cladding of the basement floor of a Moscow Stalinist building =) Little green men? It seems to me that it’s just a project that has been proven for centuries. The inside of the pyramid is made of the same rough laterite blocks as many other Angkor temples.

Just a couple of years ago it was proposed to storm the pyramid using the destroyed original staircase on the facade, but now, thank Shiva, a new one has been built.

The most mysterious part of the pyramid is a shaft that goes somewhere down. They say that King Koch Khera Jayavarman IV professed the cult of Mara (a Buddhist demon) and made human sacrifices to her through this very mine. True, Jayavarman seemed to be a Hindu, but the dog will sort them out there.

According to the guides, a coconut thrown into the pyramid shaft floats up in a river a couple of kilometers away. And on the Internet there is an opinion that coconut goes straight to Hindu hell. On this moment the Hindu hell seems to be overflowing, and the mine is filled with stones and sprinkled with earth on top. Closed for registration, no new arrivals accepted.

What is known for sure about this shaft is that a giant lingam 4 meters high was installed next to (or directly in it). Jayavarman IV had great respect for Shiva, so here we go. Records found in Koh Ker explain that it was the largest and most beautiful Shivalinga in the entire empire. If only I could take a peek!

The pyramid offers a picturesque view of the surrounding minefields.

And the stone remains of former greatness, hiding in the bushes.

They also write that the locals are afraid of the pyramid and consider it a cursed place. I don’t know, begging for money at its foot and selling water and coconuts at exorbitant prices, as usual, doesn’t bother them at all. And if the area is stuffed with anti-personnel mines, then in the second generation everyone will begin to consider it cursed.

In general, very little is known about the Koh Kera pyramid, and no one has really studied it. The first of the whites to discover Koh Ker in the 19th century, the French limited themselves mainly to the theft of all the statues and bas-reliefs preserved in the complex. So to this day, most Khmer artifacts that come up at auctions have their origins in Koh Kera.

Last look at the pyramid and we go to see Jayavarman's palace.

Royal Palace Prasat Thom

Little remains of the main structures of Prasat Thoma because pyramids had to be built.

This is what Angkor looked like before the restorers:

August 11th, 2014

I immediately realized that I would need a partner. Since the ruins of Koh Ker, where I intended to go, are located 80 km from Angkor, or rather from Siem Reap - a small town where all tourists stop. And only taxi cars go there; a tuk-tuk supposedly can’t get you that far, and because of this, the trip becomes expensive, about $100 for the whole day. Therefore, if you take a travel companion, you can reduce the cost of your trip by half.

Finding a travel companion was difficult and easy at the same time. Of course, many would like to go to the ancient Khmer city, which is more mysterious than Angkor itself. But I had somewhat eccentric plans, I was going to definitely climb to the top of Prang - the main temple of the city (access there was closed in 2012), and take a little walk in the forests around. All this would have to be coordinated with a partner, because not everyone would risk climbing a 35-meter pyramid. But I'm lucky...

A young guy from Russia from the city of Nalchik stayed at my hotel. He was traveling alone, and I immediately talked Anatoly into climbing the Pyramid of Death, because “what kind of Russian doesn’t like driving fast (c)” - the pyramid, and even “death” - of course they climbed)
Tolya turned out to be athletic and curious, interested in history, albeit in a somewhat “alternative version,” as is usual with us. We worked together right away, especially since he is also a photographer, so for the first time I got a lot of photographs of myself, and an outsider’s view is always interesting. In this post I inserted both my and his photos.

Well, now about the place where we were going to go.
Koh Ker or Chhok Gargyar was founded in 921 by King Kambujadeshi Jayavarman IV. The main intrigue associated with this city is that Jayavarman moved the capital to Koh Ker from Angkor (then called Yashodharapura). Why the Khmer king needed to move to the north, and suddenly, is now unknown for certain. It is believed that Jayavarman IV was a usurper, he wanted to create new center forces, outside Angkor, where another heir to the throne was then sitting - Ishanavarman II. For some time, the two capital centers existed in parallel, but in 928 Ishanavarman II was helped to die, and Jayavarman IV became the rightful ruler of the Khmer Empire. However, he did not return to Angkor. Jayavarman continued to further develop his new town Chhok Gargyar, which received another sonorous name - Lingapura (I would even be embarrassed to translate it into Russian), in honor of the royal linga (and this, you know what) - the main symbol of the god Shiva and imperial power in Angkor.

Ruins of the gallery leading to main temple Koh Khera.

Jayavarman IV apparently set himself the task of eclipsing the former capital Yashodharapura. Kokhker, despite his short existence in the capital status (921-944, only 23 years), became the most big city in Cambodia until modern times, its area is 35 square meters. km. For comparison, the area of Constantinople did not exceed 16 square meters. km.
Koh Ker, unlike Angkor, has been poorly studied, so its essence can only be outlined in general terms. The city had a rectangular outline - 7 by 5 km, which distinguishes it from the predominantly square cities of ancient Cambodia. The question of whether it was surrounded by fortress walls has not been fully resolved. In the north of this metropolis there are remains of some fortifications, but they are absent along the entire perimeter. The solution to this issue was main goal my visit to Koh Kera. Unfortunately, I was also unable to answer this question unambiguously.

Lingapura had its main temple complex - Prasat Thom. The complex was shifted from the city center to the north, despite the fact that all Khmer main state temples were always built in the center of the urban area.
The main temple was supposed to represent Mount Meru, which grew from the world's oceans, so almost all Khmer sanctuaries were surrounded by wide moats filled with water.

The moat surrounding Prasat Thom.

There was such a ditch around Prasat Thom. The second important component of a Hindu temple is sacred mountain As a rule, the main sanctuary was located at the top of this mountain. The temples of the former capitals - Yashodharapura and Hariharalaya - were built on this principle. Moats filled with water surrounded the temple-mountain, sometimes there were several of them, as for example in
In Koh Ker, for some reason, this scheme was changed; the main pyramid of the city, Prang, stood outside the ring of ditches, it was shifted to the west inside the temple complex. And the complex itself, as I wrote, was moved north of the center of the capital. And the city itself had a rectangular, not quadrant outline. All this seems to be trifles, but for people who have a 100% religious consciousness, such things cannot appear arbitrarily.

Ruins of Prasat Thoma.

Perhaps the violations of the accepted layout were somehow connected with the personality of the founder of Koh Ker - Jayavarman IV. The very fact that he built his capital outside the old area of Angkor suggests a certain thirst for innovation, although it is possible that he simply relied more on the support of the northern tribes and did not trust the Angkorian nobility.
Jayavarman died during a campaign against the maritime empire of Srivijaya in 941. The rule from Lingapura was continued by his son Harshavarman II, but he did not rule for long, only 3 years. In 944, the capital was moved back to Yashodharapura, and Harshavarman was apparently helped to go to the next world. Power reverted back to the founding dynasty of Angkor, overthrown by Jayavarman IV.

Despite the short existence of the capital Koh Ker, a new style of Khmer art was created at this time, which received his name. Moreover, changes occurred not only in architecture, but also in sculpture; a new expressive way of depicting people appeared. The figures of gods and kings of the Koh Ker period became more solemn, larger and, oddly enough, realistic. Architectural forms also became large, the Koh Ker style was a craving for gigantomania, and the most impressive structure of this period was the main pyramid of the city - Prang.
Unfortunately, now there are no sculptures left in Koh Ker, of which there were a great many. They were either taken to museums or simply broken. But the temple pyramid remains, and it is now the main tourist attraction of the city.

The remains of broken statues in Prasat Thom are the head of the Nandin bull and a pedestal from some sculpture.

Well, now let's move on to the main object.
The temple-mountain of Koh Kera was called the Pyramid of Death by lovers of various anomalies. They made up a bunch of stories about her, thereby increasing the income of local travel companies. In most cases, these tales were created by enterprising tour guides. Stories about the demon Mara, who was supposedly worshiped by Jayavarman IV, about the mysterious well at the top of the pyramid that leads to the underworld, are certainly needed to attract tourists to this remote Khmer city. After all, you have to travel 80 km in one direction only, and the services of taxi drivers are not cheap, so the Prang pyramid is an excellent way to solve these problems. For example, here is a good example of a collection of various kinds of trash and frenzy, dedicated to Koh Ker)

It must be admitted that the pyramid itself is very expressive, its height is 35 meters, and the side of the base is 60. Previously, the structure was higher, since at the top there was a prasat temple, where there was a giant lingam more than 4 meters high and weighing more than 28 tons. Most likely the total height of the temple was at least 60 meters.

All the events described took place in 2012, when climbing to the top of Prang was strictly prohibited. This was due to the fact that the old wooden staircase leading up was rotten and crumbling, and the climb was fraught with some risk. Now (in 2014), as far as I know, the staircase has already been replaced with a new one, and tourists calmly climb to the top of the pyramid.

But then, my partner and I had a whole adventure awaiting us) In the photo, the Koh Kera pyramid and the remains of an old rotten staircase with a stop sign at the bottom.

Naturally, I could not allow our exploration of the main temple of the city to be disrupted due to some prohibitions from local authorities. Having read on the Internet reports of tourists who tried to climb to the top of the pyramid, I came to the conclusion that local guards are actively preventing the ascent, and, moreover, as many who visited Koh Ker claimed, they do not even take money, i.e. it was impossible to bribe them. It is clear that the integrity of security is a subjective thing, but still it was not worth the risk, so a fail-safe method of penetration and ascent was needed.

As you know, simple ways to solve problems are almost always the most effective. Therefore, I decided that we would take advantage of the surprise factor, when the guards at the pyramid were not close, we would simply stupidly climb up. The temple stands inside a large open courtyard, there is no shelter from the sun anywhere, the guards are sitting somewhere in the shade, no closer than a hundred meters, so by the time they find us and come running, we will already have risen to at least half the height of the structure.

That's how it all happened. Security reacted only when we were already at the top. To be honest, I thought that they would be too lazy to climb after us, and they would wait until we went down. But the Khmers turned out to be conscientious)

It turned out that the stairs were not so rotten, there were simply no steps in some places, so in these places I simply pulled myself up with my hands, clinging to the stones with my feet.

Of particular interest here is that the wooden staircase was built on top of the ancient stone one. And they did this not only because many steps collapsed. The fact is that the original Khmer steps were of little use for a quiet ascent to the top. The height of the steps was much greater than the width, which was unusual for a European who was used to climbing stairs exclusively with his feet. You can climb the Khmer stairs only by clinging to them with your hands, as they climb very steeply, and there is a great danger of falling down (there are already many cases of deaths of tourists in Angkor on these stairs)
An interesting conclusion is drawn from this that the temples in Angkor were not intended for mass visits, and the area of the internal premises is insignificant. Most likely, only the Brahmin priests went up to the sanctuaries, and the whole people crowded below. Which once again proves the isolation of the priestly stratum and its power over the masses of people.

Nowadays, there is almost nothing left at the top of Prang; there is no temple as such. In order to have an idea of what it looked like, you can pay attention to a small, almost copy, of the Koh Ker pyramid in Angkor, next to the Phnom Bakheng temple, this is Baksey Tjamkrong - a structure also erected during the Koh Ker period, almost simultaneously with Prang , I wrote about him Only he is a few smaller in size and has four staircases, not one as here.

On the site of the temple in Koh Ker, some images have also been preserved - the faces of garudas and, probably, lions, only they are very weathered and overgrown with grass.

Once upon a time there was a giant city here. It was built mainly from wood, so there were few ruins left. In Koh Ker, in addition to Prang and Prasat Thom, there are a hundred more temples scattered over a large area, but in most cases these are small structures and are invisible among the trees.

Now, let's start examining the mysterious object at the top of the pyramid, namely to the entrance to the other world - to the kingdom of the demon Mara, as it is described by current lovers of anomalous phenomena and enterprising Khmer guides. This is a large well on the upper platform. Popular rumor says that the unfortunate victims of the bloody Brahmins were thrown at him, etc., etc.)

Unfortunately, I was not able to properly inspect this mine, since it was littered with branches, and the Khmer guards were already climbing to the top after us. I didn't have much time, plus the daylight was terrible - there was too much glare, and my own photos didn't turn out so well. I found a photo online from 2014, when tourists were allowed up and the mine was brought into a more or less decent shape.

Koh Kera pyramid mine.

Without branches, it looks, oddly enough, more prosaically - a simple well at the bottom of a square structure whose walls are made of huge blocks riddled with holes. These holes were needed to carry these same blocks. It is difficult to say why the room itself above the well is needed; most likely, these are the walls of the destroyed prasat temple. It is also possible that this was a cavity into which the base of the huge four-meter linga for which this temple was famous was inserted. After all, the Hindu lingam is a very complex structure, where there is not only a symbol of the masculine principle, but also a feminine one - the yoni, it is located at the base of the stone phallus and can take up a lot of space. Now the lingam is not here, but the cavity where it was inserted remains.

As for the well itself, there is nothing supernatural here. Wells existed in all temples of the Angkor Empire. For example, a well more than 12 meters deep was found in the very first pyramid built in the Angkor area - this is. This temple also glorified the cult of Devaraja - the divine king, i.e. also had its own stone lingam, and the well was under its pedestal - just like here in Koh Ker. As a rule, such shafts led to small chambers hidden in the depths of stone mountain temples. The chambers were used to store various ritual objects, for example, in a similar storage facility at Bayon, a statue of King Jayavarman VII was found. But in most cases, when digging wells, nothing was found - either the chambers were robbed in ancient times, or simply destroyed. A very deep well was found in Bakong, it cut through the entire pyramid and went below the surface of the earth, but in the end, nothing was found there.

Apparently the tradition of creating secluded reliquaries in the foundations of temples came to Cambodia along with Buddhism. Since such repositories are very characteristic of Buddhist stupas, scrolls with sacred texts, precious statues of Buddhas, etc. were kept in them. It can also be assumed that such chambers could contain the ashes of the cremated kings of Cambodia, because almost all of the “state” temples of Angkor were also funerary monuments for their founders. For example, the famous Angkor Wat became the tomb of Suryavarman II, who built it.

Eventually, the Khmer guards made it to the top. Imagine my surprise when, first of all, they did not rush to us, but joined the life-giving source of local obscurantism, i.e. started filming the well shaft on their phones. Apparently the tales of travel agents have already become a religion and are deeply ingrained in the superstitious consciousness of local residents. The well to hell of the demon Mara himself has already begun to live its own life.

The man has an interesting facial expression - under the visor of his cap, his eyes are full of horror, because he is looking into the mouth of the underworld itself)

But if someone suddenly thought that the demon Mara does not exist, then he is mistaken) Demons always carefully guard their secrets and are very jealous of everyone who wants to know them. Their punishment may not overtake a person immediately, but after some time.

Although I felt their harmful effects already on the same day, for I was the main initiator of the disturbance of the devils inside the pyramid. In the forest, while exploring the ramparts of Koh Ker, I came across a sharp tree thorn, it stuck out horizontally, and I almost pierced my throat. A lot of blood came out, but my neck is thick, and I was lucky. Because of this circumstance and general fatigue, we decided to curtail further searches, although much had not yet been found. But this is not the end. Later, when crossing the border between Cambodia and Thailand, I lost consciousness due to another infection and the heat. I was pumped out by several Khmer drivers, then I learned for the first time how the famous “Thai” massage works on a person in a critical situation. They literally saved me. But despite the fact that I was put on my feet, I arrived in Bangkok rather in the form of a body. I had to cancel my expedition and fly home. And that's not all. Already in Moscow, a few days later my spine jammed, and due to the hellish pain I actually could not move at all for two whole weeks.

Therefore, if you also want to disturb the “demon Maru”, I advise you to think about everything once again and weigh everything carefully. Maybe it's not worth it...

Going down is always more difficult than going up.

Here Anatoly overcomes a “difficult” place on the stairs, where there are no steps, he had to go around.

Now everything is in order with the stairs, and everyone can visit the demon Mara and his underworld)

The Koh Ker pyramid in all its glory, I asked my partner to stand next to me for scale.

Everything looks good, although there must be earth inside; the Khmers never built all-stone temple platforms.

The height of the pyramid is now approximately the same as that of a standard 12-story building.

Photos of the joints between the blocks - for all those who like to stick business cards and other razor blades into them)

As I wrote above, these holes are needed for transporting blocks, but they are not visible on every block. I think the holes may be on the top or bottom of the block, depending on how it is laid, so they are often invisible.

And this is another “pyramid” of Koh Kera - only earthen, this is a mound White elephant. No one knows what it is; this mound is located behind Prang, a hundred meters away. It is overgrown with trees, so it is difficult to remove. I found a photo online in which the mound is at least slightly visible.

Climbing the White Elephant Mound.

The main temple complex of Koh Kera, bird's eye view. On the left is Prasat Thom, surrounded by moats with water, the White Elephant Hill is located to the right of the pyramid - this is such a “bunch of trees” outside the fenced temple area. It is 25 meters high, has a round base, no one knows what it is intended for, no excavations have been carried out here. Maybe they really buried some kind of beloved elephant)

Now let's move north, towards the outskirts of the city, to find out how things were going with its external fortifications.
There are now several villages on the territory of Koh Kera, so this land is quite inhabited. The villages are all archaic, by the way, most of the houses in Chhok-Gargyar looked like this in ancient times, they were not of any kind. In Khmer cities, houses were built on stilts, and canals were laid around, which connected to the temple and outer city ditches. Every city had to dig out a huge reservoir - a baray. It was also in Koh Ker - the Rahal barai had dimensions of 1200 meters by 600, it was located south of Prang and the temple complex, and is now almost completely dry. Its corner is visible in the upper left corner of the photo above.

Rural idyll)

And then we were noticed by local girls, they were happy - a new entertainment had arrived)

But unfortunately, we will have to leave the young ladies and move on, into that forest that is visible.

After a short search, the outer shafts were discovered. They are clearly visible under the canopy of the forest, even though everything around is very overgrown.

Until now, researchers cannot solve the question of what it is. There are three options here, either these are the ramparts of the city, or these are dams that protect Koh Ker from floods, or this is something in between - a rampart that also plays the role of dams, among other things.
Personally, I am inclined to the third point, it would be logical. But there are also some problems here.
In fact, these are earthen embankments from 3 to 5 meters high, up to 20 meters wide and having, as we see, a kind of stone “shell” on the outer, in this case the northern, side.

The stones seem to have been thrown outside, from the inside there are none. In some places on the city plans they write that these are fortress walls, not ramparts, but walls. Could it be that these were walls, but then collapsed? All stones are uncut, while the Khmers were able to cut regular stone blocks into large quantities. But here they didn’t do that. Why? Maybe the ramparts were built in a hurry? As you know, Jayavarman IV built the city from scratch, but he had time to create a normal fortification - he ruled for 20 years, during which time anything could have been built. Especially such an important thing as fortress walls.

Here we come to the question - did the Khmers protect their cities with fortress walls? The question is not at all idle. At one time, V. Golubev answered in the affirmative - with the help of ramparts found near Angkor Wat, he localized the first capital of the Khmer Empire - Yashodharapura, I wrote. Now, his hypothesis is being criticized; it is believed that Golubev discovered not the ramparts of the capital of Angkor, but the dams of some reservoir built later. But the fortress walls of Yashodharapura were either not found or did not exist at all. Therefore, it is important to answer the question: did the Khmers fortify their cities? On the one hand, we have the later fortress walls of Angkor Thom and the powerful defensive ramparts of Phra Khan, an 11th century city built a hundred kilometers east of Angkor. The fortress ramparts of the cities of the Bapnom state, which existed before the period of the Angkor Empire, are also known. On the other hand, we have this disgrace that is in the photo.

The problem is that these Koh Kera ramparts now exist only in one northwestern corner of the city. I have not found any evidence that they surround it around the perimeter. It is not clear why this happened; such a grandiose structure could not disappear. But they are not on the city plans.
Unfortunately, I myself was not able to check the perimeter either; to do this, you need to live in Koh Ker for some time. After all, the length of the swells, if they are there, should be 24 km, but we only walked 2-3 kilometers, and I almost killed myself by running into a branch) Walking in a temperature of more than 35 degrees Celsius all day is not a very pleasant thing.

In general, the mystery of the fortress walls of Koh Kera was never solved.

Next we went through the small temples of Koh Kera, there are quite a lot of them, about 20 of them within tourist route. There is a normal road next to them, so there is no need to walk. There are also structures outside the main road. But here everyone decides for himself how important it is for him to walk in the forest; the territory of Koh Kera was cleared of Pol Pot mines relatively recently, around 2005. Therefore, you can try to check the quality of the sappers’ work, or you don’t have to do this) Now Koh Ker is the same tourist place, like Angkor, there are a lot of people walking here local residents, it seems that no problems with mines were heard, but no one canceled the “black” accident.

Most of the local temples are relatively small prasats. But there are exceptions, these are several Shaivite temples in the north of the city.
Prasat Andong Kuk and found the driver, set for scale.

The essence of these temples is the same as all the others; these are tower-like structures, differing only in their very decent sizes. Because of these dimensions, they apparently had wooden roofs, since covering their interiors with stone false vaults is problematic, and Hindu architects had no idea about real vaults used in Europe and the Middle East. Moreover, no remains of the ceilings were found.

There were stone lingams inside, many of quite decent size. These phallic symbols reveal the meaning of the ancient name of the city - Lingapura. Some of them were destroyed in some unknown way. It is worth noting that such massive stone sculptures can probably only be destroyed with the help of dynamite. Apparently they were blown up, I can’t imagine that this could have been done any other way. Here, for example, the massive stone base of the linga simply disappeared somewhere.

I specially removed an entire lingam with a base that is a stone slab up to a meter thick. It takes incredible efforts to destroy this structure.

Prasat Linga

Unlike Indian lingams, which naturally depicted, you know what, the Khmer ones were very ascetic, and the shape of the symbol was conveyed only conditionally. By the way, this is a characteristic feature of Khmer art - the absence of any eroticism, the stone Kama Sutra, as in the Indian temples of Khajuraho, was impossible here. They also tried to depict people at least partially clothed; absolute nudity was unacceptable for Khmer art.
Linga in Prasat Balang.

The linga was poured on top with milk, oil, water, etc., and this whole mixture then fell on the base of the monument, symbolizing the feminine principle - yoni, and was taken out of the temple through a special groove, where it was received by believers. Only priests could be inside.

A hole in the wall of the prasat through which the “sacred liquid” (which symbolized you know what) poured out.

Prasat Kra Chap.

Prasat Banteay Pir Chen.

Stone columns at Banteay Pir Chen. They had a wooden roof covered with tiles. Still, most of the Khmer buildings were wooden. It can be judged by the temple complexes in Thailand and Cambodia that have survived to this day.

Neang Khamau is, in my opinion, the most elegant temple in Koh Ker.

Temple complex Prasat Pram (Five Towers). There are actually five temples here; they are interesting because they are beautifully entwined with tree roots.

All the monuments inside were also destroyed, and these, most likely, were also lingas. In addition to the stone phalluses, there could also be statues of Shiva, but now they have all been taken to museums.

Previous posts dedicated to Cambodia and Angkor.

It might be useful to read: