Last month during our team visit to Prey Veng province we visited Ba Phnom district. Located in the flat heartlands of the Mekong delta, Ba Phnom holds the only “mountains” in Prey Veng province. Ba Phnom is an ancient cultural center of the Khmer people. The name Ba Phnom actually means [Ancestor] [Mountain].

The first Khmer kingdom, established in the 1st century, is known in English as Funan. This was the name inscribed for it in ancient Chinese records. It is believed that ‘Funan’ may be a transliteration of the ancient Khmer word ‘Bnam’ which means ‘mountain’ and which is ‘Phnom’ in modern Khmer.

Archeologists currently believe that the ancient capital of ‘Funan’, Vyadhapura, may have been located at Óc Eo in modern day Việt Nam, at Phnom Da/Angkor Borei in Takeo province, or at Ba Phnom in Prey Veng province. No matter where the ancient capital was located, Ba Phnom has been in the center of the Khmer homeland since the Khmer emerged as a distinct ethnic group.

The MCC Office Manager, Doungchann, is a native of Ba Phnom district. Chann means moon. Here we visited the 11th century ‘Temple of the Moon’ at the foot of the Ba Phnom mountains. I joked that it was Doungchann’s ancient house and she decided to take a photo in front of it.

I’ve visited two even older temple ruins, dating back to the Funan and Chenla eras, in Prey Veng province. They’re not on the grand scale of the temple ruins in Siem Reap province but they offer a glimpse into the history of the region. The ancient Khmer lived in wooden buildings – even their monarchs – so the only structures that have survived through to today are those that were stone; temples, city walls, reservoirs, and so on.

The stairs up the side of one of the “mountains” of Ba Phnom. The girls set off at a sprint and never slowed down.

Charlotte and Catherine left us, and even the SALT participants, behind as they raced up the stairs.

The old stairs up the mountain. I climbed these back when I lived in Prey Veng from 2006 to 2009. The new stairs feel a lot safer.

Despite not being as tall as Americans might think a mountain should be, Ba Phnom still offers incredible views over the Mekong delta flatlands.

The brilliantly pink stairs up to the top of the first “mountain”.

The view to the West from the top of Ba Phnom. If you look carefully in the center of the photo you can see the Neak Loeung bridge.

The girls slowing down for a moment at the top of the first mountain. The was a mountain trail to the other two summits but I didn’t follow them when they headed that way. Don’t worry, they were with the SALT and YAMEN participants!

Ladai, YAMEN participant from Zambia, coming down from the mountain summit.

I also picked up some pickled red ants while we were there but that deserves it’s own post.