Koh Ker

Koh Ker lies between the Dangrek and Kulen ranges in northern Cambodia. Jayavarman IV established a royal centre here in 921, and it became the Khmer Empire's sole capital from 928 to 944. Temples, sanctuaries and hydraulic works formed a planned sacred city, with colossal stone blocks and a distinctive sculptural style expressing the ambitions of its rulers. The court subsequently returned to Angkor.

Koh Ker's later history was one of reduced activity rather than another great royal building programme. Only two temple complexes were constructed after 944, according to the heritage assessment. The site was abandoned in the fifteenth century. Thereafter many of its artificial ponds filled with sediment and became rice fields, although they retained some capacity to collect wet-season water. For the centuries after 1337, the surviving monuments and altered waterworks therefore offer evidence of an older capital's transformation, while the available record gives little detail about particular communities or ceremonies there.