Ak Yom

 ប្រាសាទអកយំ

Date of build up: 7th century, with subsequent signs of occupation up to the beginning of the 11th century.

Cult: Hindu (Shiva)

When a section of the temple was unearthed in the 1930s, the upper levels of the pyramidal base, the staircases giving access to the sanctuary and the lower parts of the small brick sanctuaries' walls were in a rather good state of preservation. Sadly, all that remain of it seven decades later is a pile of bricks in lieu of a pyramid and more bricks scattered all around the site.

A large section of the temple is still buried under the baray's southern embankment, limiting the visit to the ruins of the central sanctuary and to a portion of the platform's
south-eastern section, which still bears the traces of three small brick sanctuaries. One of these sanctuaries faced north, another one west in an unusual layout.

1. Looters, in their search for gold, were undeterred by the size of the stones they had to displace to reach the deposit holes cut into the base of the pedestal. A circular cutting at its centre suggest that a linga once stood there.

2. A hole at the base of the massive stone pedestal led to the discovery of a pit and, at its bottom twelve meters below, of a small square cella (2.6 metres on each side). It probably contained sacred deposits but, if so, these were stolen long before the existence of the chamber was revealed by Georges Trouve in the early 1930s. This discovery prompted him to search the pit of the Bayon, where he found Buddha's broken statue.