"Six hundred steps up a Khmer hilltop temple where Buddhist pilgrims now pray in Hindu stone"
Prasat Phnom Chisor
Srok Samraong, Takeo, Cambodia
Prasat Phnom Chisor rises 133 meters above the flat Takeo Province plain, a Khmer hilltop temple built in the early eleventh century by King Suryavarman I and originally named Suryaparvata, Sun Mountain. Six hundred and ten steps lead from the plain to a summit sanctuary where Hindu gods were once worshipped and where Cambodian Buddhists now make offerings among the original sandstone and laterite architecture. Below, a sacred lake and processional temples trace the ritual landscape designed to connect the human world to the divine heights.
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Quick Facts
Location
Srok Samraong, Takeo, Cambodia
Coordinates
11.1845, 104.8249
Last Updated
Mar 29, 2026
Learn More
Built by Suryavarman I in the early eleventh century, Phnom Chisor belongs to the tradition of Khmer hilltop temples that represented earthly Mount Merus, connecting human kingdoms to the divine order.
Origin Story
King Suryavarman I, who reigned from 1002 to 1050 and expanded the Khmer Empire to its greatest territorial extent, chose this hill for a temple he named Suryaparvata, Sun Mountain. The name speaks to the fundamental impulse: to build at the highest point, closest to the sun, where the divine was most accessible. Suryavarman I was also responsible for beginning construction of the Western Baray at Angkor, the enormous reservoir that sustained the capital. His building program across the empire connected provincial temples like Phnom Chisor to the cosmological center at Angkor through shared architectural vocabulary and shared theological purpose.
Key Figures
Suryavarman I
builder-king
King of the Khmer Empire from 1002 to 1050, who expanded the empire to its greatest extent and commissioned Phnom Chisor as one of several major temples outside the Angkor core area. His name means 'protected by the sun,' and the temple he named Suryaparvata ('Sun Mountain') reflects this solar association.
Spiritual Lineage
Phnom Chisor belongs to the tradition of Khmer hilltop temples that includes Phnom Bakheng and Phnom Da. These elevated sanctuaries represented terrestrial versions of Mount Meru, the cosmic mountain at the center of Hindu-Buddhist cosmology. The temple's architectural style, with its sandstone and laterite construction and carved lintels, places it within the mainstream of eleventh-century Khmer provincial temple design.
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