Ak Yum, also written Ak Yom and known in Khmer as ប្រាសាទអកយំ, stands on the southern embankment of the West Baray in the Angkor region of Cambodia. The temple is not encountered as a freestanding monument in an open plaza: its setting is inseparable from the vast reservoir and the later earthwork that partly covered it. This relationship makes Ak Yum especially useful for understanding how Angkor’s sacred architecture and water landscape changed together over time.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes Prasat Ak Yom as an early eighth-century Khmer brick-and-sandstone temple, while its collection record dates related sculpture to the second half of the seventh to early eighth century. The museum calls it likely the earliest step-pyramid temple in Khmer history. APSARA National Authority places it in an architectural sequence before the mature temple-mountain form represented by Bakong. These institutional descriptions point to an early and significant monument, but they should not be turned into a claim that every detail of its construction sequence is settled.