Preah Ponlea Sdach Komlong (Terrace of the Leper King)

In Angkor Thom, at the north end of the Royal Square, beside the Terrace of the Elephants. Walk in at the south end of the terrace and follow the passage along the hidden wall. It is inside the Angkor park, so you need an Angkor pass.

The passage is in shade most of the day; early morning sun reaches into parts of it.

A high terrace at the north-west corner of the Royal Square of Angkor Thom, just north of the Terrace of the Elephants. It was built in the Bayon style of the late 12th century under Jayavarman VII, or soon after. Its walls are carved from top to bottom in tiers of seated kings and queens, crowned women, attendants, nagas, garudas and demons.

It takes its name from the statue on top: a seated, naked figure whose stone was discoloured with lichen, which people took for the marks of leprosy. Khmer legend tells of a king of Angkor who had the disease, sometimes said to be Yasovarman I. An inscription of the 14th or 15th century names the figure Dharmaraja, a name of Yama, god of death and judge of the dead. The statue on the terrace now is a copy. The original is in the National Museum in Phnom Penh.

Behind the outer wall is an older one. At some point the terrace was enlarged and a new facade was built a short way in front of the first, burying its carvings. When French archaeologists took the terrace apart and rebuilt it in the 1990s, the inner wall was uncovered. Its figures, sheltered for centuries, are some of the best kept at Angkor, and a narrow passage now runs between the two walls.

Why the terrace was built is not known. It has been suggested it was a place of royal cremation, which would fit a statue of the god of death.