Category:Attapeu Province

Map Keys
	Large Prasats		Arogyasalas
	Large Ruins		Dharmasalas
	Medium Prasats		Ancient Bridges
	Medium Ruins		Ancient Cities
	Medium Tuols		Ancient Kilns
	Small Prasats		Ancient Quarries
	Small Ruins		Ancient Reservoirs
	Small Tuols		Ancient Villages
	Museums		Carvings
	Depositories		Other Structures
	Wats		Prehistoric Sites
	Neak Ta's		Unknown Sites
	Unconfirmed Sites

Remote Attapeu Province - located between the Boloven Plateau to the west and the Annamite Mountains to the east - holds a surprising number of early period Khmer sites. Although today largely agricultural, back in the 7th and 8th centuries the region was undoubtedly wild and jungle-covered and ancient sites stick close to riverbanks. A cluster of ruins and tuols is located in, and south of, Saysetha (Xaisetha) on the Xe Kaman River while Ban Sakhae and Muang Sok represent settlements north of the present-day capital on the Sekong River.

The Sekong River leads to present-day Sekong and Salavan Provinces to the north while to the south it joins the Mekong at Thala Borivat. With the Khone Phapaeng Falls rendering the Mekong unnavigable, this route would have been a vital transport link between northern Cambodia and central Laos.

Ban Tatkum - the easternmost site so far discovered in Laos - is situated where the Xe Kaman flows out of the mountains of the present-day Lao-Vietnam border region and may have been the last stopping post before a rugged traversal of the mountains to Champa lands in the east. To the west, 'highway' 18 (little more than a dirt track through the forest last time we tried) leads directly to Champassak and the east bank opposite Wat Phu but has revealed no ancient sites as yet so its existence as an ancient route is plausible but unverified.

The majority of dated artefacts display 7th to 8th-century - Prei Khmeng and Kampong Preah - styles including lintels at Wat Sai Phai and Wat Sakhae. Interestingly, neither earlier - Mahendravarman - nor later - post-8th-century - vestiges have been confirmed so Attapeu's role as an important communications and transport route seems to have lasted only a short time, after which it presumably sank into obscurity again.

Mahendravarman's late 6th and early 7th-century sites are generally located very close to the Mekong (so portage around the falls can be assumed) while in later times the 'road' - or canal - route south from Wat Phu was favoured while Angkorian expansion north into regions such as Sakhon Nakhon provided much easier, alternative routes into Champa territory.