Category:Kampot 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

With regards to ancient sites, Kampot Province in the far south can be divided into 3 broad zones. The western 3rd is still today forested and mountainous and lacks any sites while the eastern section along the border of Takeo Province and Vietnam's Kien Giang displays a high density of sites - the bulk of which are mounds, small ruins and reservoirs - many of which are still unverified. Sites in the central part of the province appear to either follow transportation routes or form clusters.

In the latter case, present-day highways 3 and 41, (from Takeo and Kampong Speu respectively) feature strings of closely aligned sites. These converge on a large cluster in the district of Chhouk and again in a broad area north of modern-day Kampot Town. (The latter may indicate the area's importance as an early port site.)

The eastern section would appear, as in the case of Svay Rieng and Prei Veng), to represent an early-period agricultural hinterland with a high density of small village sites but few large population centres. The important Funanese site of Oc Eo is less than 50kms from the Vietnamese border at this point and Angkor Borei some 35kms northeast.

While sites across the province do indicate a wide range of time periods - including Chenla and notably Yasovarman period vestiges - many of the small tuols may correspond to the Funan period and indeed Kampot is unique in featuring what are plausibly the earliest intact temple sites in Cambodia. Small towers situated in sheltered caves at Prasat Phnom Khyang and Prasat Phnom Chhngok are considered to date from the 6th century and thus likely to indicate what the large number of mound sites once looked like.