Srah Damrei (Elephant Pond)
Elephant, lions and a bull carved directly from a mountaintop boulder above a sacred pond.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Srah Damrei, the boulder-carved elephant shrine atop Phnom Kulen near Siem Reap, opens with ninth-century sculptors who found the animal sleeping inside a single sandstone rock and carved away everything else. It traces the mountain's role as the birthplace of the Khmer empire, where Jayavarman II declared himself a god around 802, and how surveyors did not pin down this clearing's location until the 1920s. Stand at the elephant's shoulder and look for the lions and unnamed creature carved beside it.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Wat Preah Ang Thom
Reclining Buddha eight meters long, carved into a natural sandstone boulder atop a sacred mountain.
Phnom Kulen National Park
Sacred mountain plateau where a river carved with ancient lingas feeds waterfalls and jungle trails.
Kbal Spean
Riverbed carved with a thousand small lingas plus reclining Vishnu and Shiva reliefs, hidden along a jungle stream.
Bakong Temples
Ninth-century sandstone pyramid guarded by stone elephants and lion-flanked stairways.
Koh Ker Pyramid Temple
Seven-tiered sandstone pyramid rising above the jungle, once flanked by carved combat scenes.
Phnom Bok Temple
Hilltop trio of ninth-century sandstone towers built for the Hindu trinity, reached by hundreds of steps and eyed for a solstice alignment.