Place
Phnom Sampeau
ភ្នំសំពៅ
Phnom Sampeau (ភ្នំសំពៅ) is a limestone hill about 12 kilometers (7 miles) from the city of Battambang (បាត់ដំបង), beside the road to Pailin.[1][2] It stands in Phnom Sampov commune, Banan district, on National Road 57, which was earlier numbered Road 10, and rises about 100 meters (330 feet).[2] The hill has a pagoda, caves that the Khmer Rouge used as killing sites, and caves of bats that fly out each evening.[3]
Name and legend
Sampeau (សំពៅ) is the Khmer word for a junk, a large sailing ship. In a Khmer legend, King Reach Kol (រាជកុល) set sail to marry Princess Rumsay Sok (រំសាយសក់), whose hair had the power to turn sea into land. Sovann Ma Sa, a poor woman the king had loved, sent her crocodile, A Thon, to sink his ship. Warned by the god Indra, the princess combed out her hair and the sea dried up, and the ship became Phnom Sampeau.[1][4] By the tale the hill leans a little because it is the ship. Nearby hills take their names from the same story: Phnom Kdaong Sampeau is the ship's sail, and Phnom Rumsay Sok, to the south, is where the princess combed her hair.[1]
Rock and fossils
The hill is made of limestone that formed under the sea. A study on the Khmer Civilization website, citing the heritage department of the Ministry of Environment, dates the rock to the Permian period, 251 to 299 million years ago. Fossil brachiopods, a kind of shellfish, lie along the path up to the vihara at the summit, and two kinds of coral are found near the top. The study names Phnom Sampeau, Phnom Kdaong and Phnom Banteay Neang as sites of marine fossils and calls its findings preliminary.[5]
Caves
The provincial tourism department counts 12 caves on the hill. Among those visitors can enter are Phka Sla, Khyal, Kok Troung, Sthani, Preng and Teng Khluon.[2] Many of the caves join one another, and the legend links each of them to Princess Rumsay Sok.[1]
Khmer Rouge killing caves
Under the Khmer Rouge, caves on the hill were used as killing sites.[2] Prisoners were executed and their remains thrown into a cave, which is kept as a memorial and is a common stop on tours from Battambang.[3] In English the site is known as the Killing Caves.[3] At the Lakhaon cave (ល្អាងល្ខោន), prisoners were beaten and pushed down a shaft about 12 meters (40 feet) deep. Bones and skulls of Khmer Rouge victims are kept there in a glass case.[2] The case gave the cave its local name, Kbal Khmoch (ល្អាងក្បាលខ្មោច), "the skull cave". A painting near the entrance shows the killings, and in 1998 Buddhists built a reclining Buddha in the cave in memory of the victims of the Khmer Rouge.[2] The Teng Khluon cave (ល្អាងតែងខ្លួន) also keeps the bones and clothing of Khmer Rouge victims in a wire cage.[2] An official of the provincial tourism department told Kampuchea Thmey that another cave, about 25 meters (80 feet) deep, was used to kill children.[2]
After the war
Visitors began to return to the hill around 1983, when part of the stone stairway had been destroyed and climbers held on to rocks, vines and roots to reach the top. Vietnamese troops used the hill as a base and left two large guns on it.[4] As the road to Pailin was rebuilt, the number of visitors rose. The stone stairway was rebuilt and a road was made for motorbikes and cars, and stalls at the foot and on the hill sell food, drinks and souvenirs.[4]
A large carving of the life of the Buddha, from his birth through his enlightenment to his passing into nirvana, is being cut into a rock face of the hill. Local residents say work began in 2003. In July 2024 it was unfinished, and residents asked the provincial authorities to have it completed.[6] The provincial culture department lists 17 sites on the hill, among them the pagoda, Wat Kiri Rum (វត្តគីរីរម្យ), and the summit.[2]
Bats
Millions of bats live in caves at Phnom Sampeau. They leave to feed at about 6 p.m. in the rainy season and 5:30 p.m. in the dry season, and the flight lasts about two hours. In 2019 the head of the local bat cave community told the Phnom Penh Post that the bats in the hill's two main caves had fallen by about 70 percent over a few decades. Some had moved to other caves and others were caught in nets. Community members follow the bats across the rice fields at dusk so that children do not throw things at them. Every 15 days, four to eight people collect the bats' droppings, which are sold to local farmers as fertilizer; a bag sold for 25,000 riel in 2019. The provincial tourism director gave an average of 250 to 300 visitors a day to the caves.[7]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 VAYO FM, Tha Chanthy, The history of Phnom Sampeau in Battambang province (October 21, 2022; in Khmer)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 Kampuchea Thmey, Sao Sarith, The caves of Phnom Sampeau bear the history of killings under Pol Pot (October 25, 2025; in Khmer)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Cambodianess, Wonders of Cambodia, Battambang City Guide for Culture Lovers: Cambodia's Creative Second City (2026)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Sabay News, Phnom Sampeau, a natural and historical site (September 15, 2016; in Khmer)
- ↑ AMS Khmer Civilization, Lim Vannachan, Fossil finds in the Phnom Sampeau area (undated; in Khmer)
- ↑ Kampuchea Thmey, Work on the Buddha carving at Phnom Sampeau has dragged on for nearly 20 years (July 1, 2024; in Khmer)
- ↑ The Phnom Penh Post, Watch among nature's greatest spectacles at Battambang bat caves (October 2, 2019)