Preah Khan Temple
Sprawling jungle monastery of stone corridors and carved doorways, built as a walled Buddhist university and royal shrine.
This guide to Preah Khan Temple in Siem Reap follows the story of the Preah Khan Reach, a jeweled ceremonial sword passed from Khmer king to king since the 800s and possibly once kept inside this temple's small central chamber. A thirteenth-century account by the Chinese envoy Zhou Daguan describes a golden sword carried before the ruler, and later kings could not be crowned without it. It traces how King Norodom waited nearly four years for its return from Bangkok after his 1860 coronation, and what became of the sword during Cambodia's 1970 coup. Stoop as you enter the innermost sanctuary, where centuries of oil-lamp soot still blacken the ceiling.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.