Phnom Kulen

WaterfallsSiem Reap,Cambodia

The Cambodian plateau Angkor was quarried from and the Khmer Empire declared on, its riverbed carved with lingas above a waterfall families swim in.

September·Peaking now

Aug–Oct

Monsoon fills the Kulen river and the lower fall roars into a brown, swollen pool, the falls at their most powerful. But the sacred riverbed lingas drown, and the one-way road and red-earth trails turn muddy and slick.

Year-round A working shrine, not a ruin: the reclining Buddha, the carved riverbed and Khmer pilgrims are here every day. The falls, the water's clarity, the heat and the trails all turn with the season.

Phnom Kulen is the mountain the Khmer Empire was declared on, and the mountain Angkor was built out of. It is a forested sandstone plateau north-east of Siem Reap, and what draws Cambodians up it today is water. The Kulen river crosses a broad shelf where hundreds of lingas, the blunt stone emblems of Shiva, are cut into the bed itself, and the water is held to be sanctified as it passes over them. A little further on the river drops in two steps: first a low, wide curtain, then a fall of 15 to 20 metres into a pool where families swim, most of them fully clothed. Above it all, at Preah Ang Thom, an eight-metre reclining Buddha lies carved into the crown of a single sandstone boulder, the largest in Cambodia. This is a working pilgrimage site rather than a ruin, loud with incense, picnics and blessings. The history is underfoot rather than on display. In 802 CE Jayavarman II had himself consecrated universal monarch up here, founding the empire and installing the cult of the god-king at its centre. His capital, Mahendraparvata, then disappeared so completely that its scale was settled only in 2019, when airborne laser scanning stripped the canopy away and exposed a planned grid city of some 40 to 50 square kilometres. More than fifty quarries at the south-eastern foot cut the sandstone for Angkor's temples, and the streams draining this plateau still feed the rivers and reservoirs that made Angkor possible. The mountain is also still shedding the twentieth century: the Khmer Rouge held out here into the 1990s, and mines and unexploded ordnance remain in the forest off the cleared paths.

Worth knowing

Good to know

The mountain road runs one way — uphill only until late morning, then downhill only after midday, so a late start costs you the whole plateau. Leave Siem Reap early.
The falls and the carvings peak in opposite seasons — the monsoon makes the waterfall roar but drowns the riverbed lingas, which show best under the low, clear water that follows the rains.
Stay on the cleared paths — this was the Khmer Rouge's last redoubt and mines still lie in the forest, so save outlying sites like Srah Damrei for a guided walk.
Cambodians come here to pray, not to sightsee — weekends and the April new year fill the summit with pilgrims and picnics, while a weekday leaves the pools far quieter.

Things to do

1
Swim where Khmer families picnic under the falls
The lower fall drops 15 to 20 metres into a broad pool, and on any weekend it is full of Cambodian families, most of them swimming in their clothes. From the rock above the second tier you can look straight down the drop into a hollow of jungle, with the pilgrim village's stalls crowded along the bank.
2
Trace the lingas cut into the riverbed
Upstream of the falls the river runs shallow across a broad sandstone shelf, and the rock under the water is carved with hundreds of lingas laid out in grids. You wade in to see them properly. Pilgrims bottle the water below the carvings, because passing over the stone is what makes it holy.
3
Climb to the boulder Buddha of Preah Ang Thom
A stair lined with vendors climbs to a pagoda perched on one enormous sandstone block, whose crown was carved into an 8-metre reclining Buddha, the largest in Cambodia. Inside it is close, dark and thick with incense, and the queue is almost entirely Cambodian: lotus flowers, folded banknotes, a monk's blessing with water.
4
Walk in to the stone elephant of Srah Damrei
In the forest beyond Anlong Thom, a boulder was carved into an elephant, with lions and a bull left standing around it, some twelve centuries ago. The forest here was heavily mined and only the track has been cleared, so you come with a guide — which is also why you will likely have the sculptures to yourself.

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Nearby

16 km