Prasat Phra Wihan (Preah Vihear) near Si Sa Ket ปราสาทพระวิหาร

The original ancient area of Prasat Phra Wihan is under a big border conflict at the present. Thai government pronounce the culture heritage for their territory to make the business after UNESCO declared this territory as their heritage.
The true is: Thai and Cambodian local citizen live together in peace since many years. Every time when tension crows in the government in Bangkok, the high authorities use the theme "Phra Wihan" as a theme to deviate simple Thai citizen from own intern crisis and problems (intern. papers like FAZ, NZZ, SZ and others writing about the truth and the distraction).
The fact is: Prasat Phra Wihan is Cambodian culture and its soul, every body has to respect this. The entrance to the temple is also Cambodian territory (this often is wrongly written in papers), the small river in front of the entrance is the border Thailand/Cambodia. This is the conviction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague from 1962. Thailand never reclaimed this decision before. Best and peaceful solution would be like Thailand makes the business by hospitality and accommodation of tourists and visitors and Cambodia make the business by charging the entrance fees - and every body lives in peace.

Please click to my album http://www.ipernity.com/doc/wolfgang-pfriemer/album/54056
when I captured many pictures from the original territory in 2000.

Prasat Phra Wihan (Preah Vihear) stands on the summit of Phra Wihan Hill, on the edge of the south face of the Phanom Dong Rak Range escarpment on the Thai-Cambodian border, Si Sa Ket Prov ince. This stone sanctuary was built in the reign of King Suryavarman I around 1038 A.D. As for the architectural style, beginning from the depression at the foot of the hill slope and moving up to the hill, one passes through a series of 4 groups of stone structures established at different levels. All buildings have gable roofs, not the spired pyramid roofs of palace structures. It would be more correct to call the ruins monthien. The crest of the hill is a slab of stone projecting out over the cliff face. A short path leads down to the natural rock shelter underneath the overhanging stone. The rock shelter is called, Poei Ta Di. Preah Vihear now belongs to Kingdom of Cambodia. In the geographical aspect, Prasat Phra Wihan stands within the Thai boundary because all small streams that come from the top of the hill run down directly into the Mun River in north east ern Thailand. Also, from the Thai border, Prasat Phra Wihan is more easily accessed than from Cam bo dia. The local people in the Northeast normally walk up by the streams to the summit of the hill while the Cambodians have to climb up broken staircases which are too steep to climb up com fort ably.

Khao Phra Wihan at Muang Boran is an artificial hill with 54 meters high, 66 meters wide and 250 meters of hill slope. 684 pillars have been used to shore up the hill, 2,400 truckloads of rockfill were used to create the lofty hill. 40 rai of land mass was dug up for topsoil to cover the hill slope. The artificial hill of Preah Vihear is about one-tenth of its original size while the prasat is smaller than its original size by half. On the top of Khao Phra Wihan provides an excellent scenary of Muang Boran.