Koh Ker Pyramid
Koh Ker Pyramid Dr. Sam Semir Osmanagich
The Koh Ker temple complex is located in Northeastern Cambodia. The conventional story is that Army General Jayavarman separated from the central government in city of Angkor, from which his uncle ruled the Khmer Empire. Jayavarman built a complex of temples and was proclaimed the king, and Koh Ker became the capital city. History remembers him as King Jayavarman IV.
My goal traveling to Cambodia was to visit the Angkor Archaeological Park with its many temples and to visit the Koh Ker pyramid (figure 1). After seeing the temples, I concluded that the Koh Ker pyramid is the only true pyramid on Cambodian lands. It seems that it has nothing in common with the other pyramid temples, as it was decorated with Hindu symbols.
Koh Ker is 115 km from the Siem Reap and Angkor Wat. The Angkor Archaeological Park is visited by several million tourists every year. Koh Ker has been forgotten. Basic reparations were done in the 1960s to prevent further decay, but further work was never performed (figure 2).