One of the Preah Theat's

The rubble and remains of Kok Preah Theat Ponnareay

Local farmers are usually the only visitors to Kok Preah Theat Ponnareay

Talking of uncovering ancient prasats, which I hope to do lots of next week, I forgot to show you a ruined temple or two that I came across during my recent visit to Kompong Cham. In fact I have realised that I have a few more pictures to show you from my Kompong Cham trip, so let's start with one of the many Preat Theat temples of Kompong Cham. I counted about ten separate sites where Preah Theat is included in the name of the archaeological sites located a few kilometres east of Kompong Cham city itself. This one is Kok Preah Theat Ponnareay and is in essence one of many such ruined temple sites to be found in the province. To everyone except the real temple boffins this is a pile of stones in a field. And they are right, though in its heyday the temple would've housed intricate sandstone carvings and a shrine to a Hindu or Buddhist deity. This site is located a few kilometres east of the small town of Suong and about a kilometre into the rice paddies and scrub behind the pagoda of Wat Pech Sa Ponnareay. Half a dozen youngsters on bicycles led me into the rice fields and to the ruined laterite prasat, with a large hole in the center where scavengers had dug deep in search of buried treasure, a common feature at many of the outlying temple sites across the country. Aside from the large blocks of laterite that formed two walls, and many more on the floor, there was little else to see, no carvings whatsoever and even the two large laterite-lined pools about 300 metres away were devoid of water. If you go to Kompong Cham on the hunt for temple sites, I can't recommend highly enough the new province maps produced by The Ministry of Culture & EFEO. They will keep you occupied for weeks.

One of two dry laterite-lined pools near to Kok Preah Theat Ponnareay

On the way to Suong, I called into the massive Chup rubber plantation compound for a look around as I headed for what I thought was a genocide memorial at Wat Preah Vihear Tontim. Unfortunately, I was thwarted as the laymen at the temple told me that the memorial and the victims remains were removed in the late '80s, whilst the laterite prasat that was formerly located next to the pagoda's vihara was completely destroyed decades ago. Just a few laterite blocks remained in the undergrowth. More disappointment followed when they told me that another genocide memorial at Chamkar Svay, the site of a Khmer Rouge prison and burial ground a few kilometres away, had also been destroyed. In addition, the area was known for a spate of moto robberies in recent months so I decided to skip it and carry onto visit Kok Preah Theat Ponnareay. You have to be prepared for some disappointments along the way in Cambodia and this day was certainly not one of my most successful.

The main vihara at Wat Preah Vihear Tontim