The Most Remarkable Archaeological Sites in Cambodia
6 places · updated 6 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most remarkable archaeological sites in Cambodia are Angkor Wat, Bayon and Preah Vihear Temple. The list covers 6 archaeological sites. Last updated 6 October 2026.
Cambodia's archaeological sites are the legacy of the Khmer Empire, which between the ninth and fifteenth centuries ruled much of mainland Southeast Asia from the plains north of the Tonlé Sap lake. Its kings built in sandstone and laterite on a scale unmatched in the region, shaping temples as stepped mountains that stood for Mount Meru, the home of the gods, and surrounding them with moats and vast reservoirs that also fed the rice fields of the capital.
Angkor Wat, built in the early twelfth century under Suryavarman II and dedicated to Vishnu, is the largest religious monument in the world, with five lotus-bud towers and kilometres of carved bas-reliefs. A little to the north, the Bayon at the heart of Angkor Thom was raised by Jayavarman VII around 1200 as a Buddhist temple, its towers crowded with serene stone faces. Banteay Srei, consecrated in 967, is small by comparison, but its pink sandstone carries some of the finest carving in Khmer art.
Beyond Angkor the story widens in both time and space. Sambor Prei Kuk, the capital of the pre-Angkorian kingdom of Chenla, has brick sanctuaries from the seventh century, including rare octagonal towers. Koh Ker was briefly the royal seat in the tenth century and is known for its seven-tiered pyramid of Prasat Thom. Preah Vihear stands on the edge of a cliff in the Dângrêk Mountains, its sequence of gateways climbing towards a sanctuary with views over the plains far below.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Angkor Wat | Archaeological site | ✓ |
| 2 | Bayon | Archaeological site | ✓ |
| 3 | Preah Vihear Temple | Temple | ✓ |
| 4 | Koh Ker | Archaeological site | ✓ |
| 5 | Banteay Srei | Temple | ✓ |
| 6 | Sambor Prei Kuk | Archaeological site | ✓ |
01 Angkor Wat
Cambodia · 5.4 km from Siem Reap13.412° N 103.867° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by The_5ifth from Pixabay Siem Reap, the town at the gate of the Angkor park, is the base for visiting the temples. It sits on the river of the same name, which runs down to the Tonlé Sap lake.
Did you know? Its original name, Vrah Viṣṇuloka, means the sacred dwelling of Vishnu; Angkor Wat, the later name, means City of Temples.
02 Bayon
Cambodia · 8.3 km from Siem Reap13.441° N 103.859° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by patrickmoretti06 from Pixabay Early morning is the best time, before the tour buses and while the stone is still in soft light. Because the temple stands at the centre of Angkor Thom, roads run straight to it from the city's gates at the four cardinal points, which makes it the natural starting point for exploring the rest of the walled city.
Did you know? Its central tower rises 43 metres above the ground and was originally cross-shaped before being filled out into a rounded mass.
03 Preah Vihear Temple
Cambodia14.391° N 104.680° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
PsamatheM · CC BY-SA 4.0 Climb slowly from the lowest gate, which keeps the reward of the final terrace, the Pey Tadi cliff, until the end. The light is best early or late in the day, when the sandstone turns warm and the plain below is hazy and blue.
Did you know? The fifth gopura still carries traces of the red paint that once decorated it.
04 Koh Ker
Cambodia13.783° N 104.533° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
PsamatheM · CC BY-SA 4.0 Koh Ker gave its name to a distinct art style, known for monumental, dynamic sculpture: huge lingas up to two metres tall, giant Garudas and powerful free-standing figures. Many of these statues were removed over the past century and dispersed to collections abroad. French researchers also traced an ancient raised road more than eight metres wide running out from the city. In 2023 Koh Ker was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, the fourth Cambodian site to receive the status.
Did you know? The Rahal reservoir is turned about 15 degrees off the usual east-west axis, and the main monuments share its angle, suggesting the reservoir was laid out first.
05 Banteay Srei
Cambodia · 28.4 km from Siem Reap13.599° N 103.963° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by DEZALB from Pixabay Look also for the devatas, the female divinities standing in niches on the corners of the central towers, with their high headdresses, jewellery and slight half-smiles. They have a dramatic modern history. The site was only brought to French attention in 1914, and in 1923 the young André Malraux, later a celebrated novelist and minister of culture, was arrested for cutting four of these figures out of the walls to sell; the statues were recovered. In the 1930s Banteay Srei became the first temple at Angkor to be rebuilt by anastylosis, the method of dismantling a ruin and reassembling it stone by stone with its original blocks carried out under the French conservator Henri Marchal.
Did you know? The temple's founding inscription praises Yajnavaraha as a scholar who helped people suffering from illness, injustice and poverty.
06 Sambor Prei Kuk
Cambodia · 23.7 km from Kampong Thom12.867° N 105.040° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
PsamatheM · CC BY-SA 4.0 Built mostly of brick with sandstone details, the temples show the decorative language of what art historians call the Sambor Prei Kuk style, with motifs that reflect contacts with the Pallava art of southern India. In this period the forms that would later flourish at Angkor were first worked out, and the site is regarded as a direct forerunner of the classical Khmer temple. Sambor Prei Kuk was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in July 2017.
Did you know? Six temples carry carvings of 'flying palaces': miniature buildings in relief, set into the outer walls.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most remarkable archaeological sites in Cambodia?
- On our list, Angkor Wat ranks first, followed by Bayon and Preah Vihear Temple.
- Who built Angkor Wat?
- Angkor Wat was built in the first half of the twelfth century for the Khmer king Suryavarman II, originally as a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu. It was later used as a Buddhist temple and has remained in religious use ever since.
- What is the difference between Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom?
- Angkor Wat is a single temple complex. Angkor Thom is the walled royal city founded by Jayavarman VII in the late twelfth century, just to the north, with the Bayon temple at its centre.
- Whose faces are carved on the towers of the Bayon?
- The serene faces on the Bayon's towers are usually interpreted as the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, often with the features of King Jayavarman VII, who built the temple as a Buddhist state shrine.
- How many archaeological sites are on this list in Cambodia?
- The list covers 6 archaeological sites.