Preah Khan Temple is located 2 km northeast of Angkor Thorn on the Grand Circuit. The temple was built in the second half of the 12th century AD in AD 1191 by King Jaya-varman VII, dedicating to his father Dharanindravarman. The Buddhist complex covers 56 acres served as the nucleus of a group that includes Neak Pean and Ta Som, located 4 miles long Jayatataka Baray - the last of the large resguardos to be built in Angkor.

The inscription indicates that Preah Khan was built on the battle site where King Jaya-varman VII finally defeated the Chams. At that time, it was known as Nagarajayacri, which means the city of Preah Khan.

Four concentric walls subdivide Preah Khan. The outer or fourth wall, which is surrounded by a large moat, now encompasses a large expanse of the jungle, formerly dwellers of the monks, students and attendants of Preah Khan. The second ramp delineated the main religious compound of about four hectares within which there is a dense concentration of temple and shrines. The central complex is Buddist. The northern and western sectors are dedicated to

Brahmanism - Vishnu (west) and Shiva (north), while the southern sector is a place of worship of the ancestors. The eastern sector forms the grand entrance of the central shrine.

A place for a king located near the temple of Preah Khan is called Veal Reacheak or Preah Reachea Dak. It is 1,500 meters long and 1,200 meters wide. About 700 meters north of the Preah Khan temple, along the road to the district of Angkor Thorn, is another small temple called Ptu. The temple was made of laterite.

The History of the Temple of Preah Khan

Preah Khan was built on the site of Jayavarman VII's victory over the invading Chams in 1191. Unusually, the modern name, meaning "sacred sword", is derived from the meaning of the original Nagara-Jayasri (sacred city of victory). The site may already have been occupied by the royal palaces of Yasovarman II and Tribhuvanadityavarman. The stele of the temple base provided considerable information about the history and administration of the site: the main image of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara in the form of the king's father was dedicated in 1191 (the king's mother had already been celebrated in the same way in Ta Prohm). 430 other deities also had sanctuaries on the site, each of which received a portion of food, clothing, perfumes and even mosquito nets; The wealth of the temple included gold, silver, gems, 112,300 pearls and a cow with golden horns. The institution combined the roles of city, temple and Buddhist university: there were 97,840 attendants and servants, including 1000 dancers [5] and 1000 teachers.

The temple is not yet redeemed: initial deforestation was from 1927 to 1932, and partial anasthylosis was performed in 1939. Since then, independent statues have been removed for maintenance and there have been further consolidation and restoration works. At all times, the conservatives tried to balance the restoration and maintenance of the wild condition in which the temple was discovered: one of them, Maurice Glaize, wrote this;

The temple was previously invaded with a particularly voracious and quite ruined vegetation, presenting only the chaos. Compensation work was carried out with constant respect for the large trees which give the composition a pleasant presentation without constituting an immediate danger. At the same time, a partial anasthenosis revived several buildings found in a state of sufficient preservation and exhibiting some special interest in its architecture or decoration.

Since 1991, the site has been maintained by the World Monuments Fund. He continued with the cautious approach of restoration, believing that going further would involve a lot of divination and prefers to respect the ruined nature of the temple. One of his former employees said, "We're basically running a glorified maintenance program. We're not prepared to fake the story." It was therefore limited mainly to stabilization work in the fourth eastern gopura, the Firehouse and the Dancers' Hall.