The sacred geography of the Indic world — every site mapped, dated, storied, and cited.
Dangrek escarpment, Preah Vihear · 14.3903°, 104.6800°
Shiva as Lord of the Summit: an 800 m processional axis of stairways and gopuras climbing to a sanctuary on a 525 m Dangrek cliff over the Cambodian plain — the most dramatically sited of all Khmer temples. Awarded to Cambodia by the ICJ in 1962 (reaffirmed 2013) and UNESCO-listed in 2008, it remains entangled in recurring Thai–Cambodian border tensions — sacred geography as live geopolitics.
What follows is the temple’s own traditional account, transmitted through liturgy and local memory. It is recorded here as tradition, not as attested history.
Legend ties the founding relic to a lock of Shiva's hair; the temple rises through five gopuras — pilgrims ascending, level by level, from the world of men to the god's mountain throne at the edge of the sky.
coordinates: wikipedia-2026-08-26 · sources retrieved 2026-08-26 · dynasty page: Khmer (Angkor)
Answers only from cited records
Opening the line…