Preah Khan of Kampong Svay is a vast Khmer archaeological landscape in Preah Vihear Province, northeast of Cambodia’s better-known Angkor circuit. The name can mislead first-time readers: it is a different place from Preah Khan inside Angkor Archaeological Park. Cambodian government tourism pages also call the complex Preah Khan of Kampong Thom or Prasat Bakan; the Khmer-language tourism portal notes that the Kampong Svay name helps distinguish it from the Angkor monument. For local pronunciation, Bakan is another name worth recognizing on maps and in travel discussions.
The site’s importance lies not in a single photogenic tower but in the scale of a temple-centered settlement. Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism describes a monastic complex enclosing nearly five square kilometres and situated about 100 kilometres east of Beng Mealea; it also warns that the road approach is difficult. Those figures come from a government visitor profile rather than a modern boundary survey, so they should be read as a broad description, not a precise measurement. The remote setting helps explain why the complex receives far fewer visitors than Angkor’s central monuments.
