Tucked away off the beaten track, some 50 km from Siem Reap, is an unusual sight. Kbal Spean. The name literally means “Bridge Head”. Here you will find the “River of the 1,000 lingas”. Don’t confuse this one with another river in the Kulen mountains by the same name. These are not the same place.

Kbal Spean is set 2km from the road. You drive up a dirt track and park up. The trail starts at the back of the car park. One annoying feature of the area is you need an Angkor pass to visit – but that’s just an annoyance (especially if you’ve trekked out without one!)

The trail is well defined. There’s no chance of getting lost. Every 100m, there’s a board announcing how much further you have to go. It starts at 1,500m. So off you trek. It’s not a hard walk, but reasonable shoes are recommended. We passed an elderly lady, possibly in her 80s walking along. She was looking forward to getting there. At the steepest sections there are wooden steps. But it’s not the path that gets your attention, it’s the scenery. It’s beautiful out in the jungle. The time passes really quickly. You stop to take a picture, another vista opens up, another stop. There’s a huge perched rock, shaped like a mushroom, there’s an interesting insect, butterfly or bird, there’s a tree growing in an unusual shape. Yes, the walk passes quickly.

When you finally get there, the first waterfall is interesting. It’s not too high, but all around are carvings of Hindu deities. Vishnu, Lakshmi, Shiva, Uma mounted on the bull, they are all there. The carvings were started  in the reign of King Suryavarman I and ended with the reign of King Udayadityavarman II; these two kings ruled between the 11th and 12th centuries. But the detailed description is boring. If you want to read the detailed descriptions, check Wikipedia, or one of the host of online guides. By now you know this is a website about the experience, the feeling. Walking along the riverbed, you are treading a 1,000 year old path.

The river flows over 1,000 lingam. These Hindu features we have seen before in many of the earlier temples. They represent the male sexual organ. Although much worn now, they are set out in a perfect grid pattern. The concept was it purified and blessed the water which flowed over it, on its way to the main temples at Angkor and out into Tonle Sap lake.

If you start by looking upstream for a little – maybe less than 100m, you will find many of the carvings. Return to the bridge itself and in the floor is a hole. You can drop through the hole and your friend can take a photo of you, perched on the side of the bridge. It’s all good in the eyes of the tourists and their guides. Keep going downstream and there are masses of lingam. I asked my guide if anyone had ever counted them. He replied that he’d counted them twice personally. With a huge grin he announced once he counted 1,001 and once 1,002! Somehow I don’t believe him.

Keep walking downstream. The oldest lingas themselves may date from the 9th century. Follow them and the river dives off a cliff. A rather spectacular waterfall announces the end of the carvings and time to return down the path. You can tarry and take your time. Such pristine countryside with quite this amount of history is rare to find. Enjoy!

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