The unfinished sandstone Khmer temple-mountain on a peak of the Phu Phan range west of Sakon Nakhon, reached by 491 steps, with no roof and no finial — only the tie-beams set in place and left.
พระธาตุภูเพ็ก · Phra That Phu Phek
| Official name | พระธาตุภูเพ็ก — Phra That Phu Phek |
|---|---|
| Where | Na Hua Bo, Phanna Nikhom, Sakon Nakhon |
| Royal temple class | Not established from an official register. |
| Monastic order | Not recorded in any register we could read. |
| Ancient monument | Registered national ancient monument Royal Gazette vol. 98 part 104, 30 June B.E. 2524 — determination of the land boundary of the national ancient monument. Earlier: the list of national ancient monuments at vol. 52, p. 3699, 8 March B.E. 2478. Both instruments were read from the Fine Arts Department's own register service on 26 September 2026, which also returns the filename of the department's boundary plan raster for the 30 June B.E. 2524 instrument. The register carries the monument at status 5 — registered with a determined land boundary — and its full address as Tambon Na Hua Bo, Phanna Nikhom district. |
| Coordinates | 17.191726, 103.937783 Fine Arts Department national monument register, the department's own registered point for monument 0003390, read from its province service on 26 September 2026. It falls in Tambon Na Hua Bo, Phanna Nikhom district, which is the address the register itself states, on the Phu Phan escarpment west of the city. |
Thai temple histories mix two different kinds of statement, and this guide keeps them apart. What a register, a gazette entry, an inscription or a dated royal act shows is one thing. What the chronicles and the temple itself hold is another, and it is worth telling as what it is.
Two state bodies disagree about the period. The Fine Arts Department places it in the late Baphuon horizon of the late 16th to 17th Buddhist century; the Tourism Authority of Thailand's page gives the same centuries but names the period สมัยขอมบายน, the Bayon, which is roughly a century later and is inconsistent with the centuries stated in the same sentence. The department is the registering authority and is followed here, with the conflict printed rather than hidden.
Phra That Phu Phek stands on the summit of Phu Phek, one of the high points of the Phu Phan range, in Tambon Na Hua Bo in Phanna Nikhom district. The Fine Arts Department puts it about twenty-two kilometres west of the old town of Sakon Nakhon; the Tourism Authority describes the road as Highway 22 towards Udon Thani for about twenty-two kilometres and then a left turn for fourteen more. Either way the last part is on foot: the authority states that reaching the monument means climbing 491 steps. That is the single most useful practical fact about the site and the reason it is the least visited of the four Khmer monuments in this province.
The department's description is unusually clear about what kind of building this is. It calls it a large prasat of the ศาสนบรรพต type — a temple-mountain, a sanctuary whose siting on a peak is part of its religious argument — in the Hindu Shaiva persuasion, built entirely of sandstone, with a shivalinga as the principal object of worship. It dates the monument to roughly the late 16th to 17th Buddhist century and compares it directly to Preah Vihear in Cambodia, which is the same idea executed on a far larger scale on the same escarpment system. The comparison is the department's own and is worth taking seriously: this is not a provincial imitation of a Khmer sanctuary but a real example of a specific and demanding Khmer type.
It was never completed. The department states plainly that the decorative carving was never cut, and the Tourism Authority describes the consequence in structural terms: there is no roof and no prasat finial, and only the tie-beams were set in place. The authority also gives measurements — a square redented plan on a laterite base, the front joined to a rectangular mondop, a first tier 1.58 metres high, a second tier 0.70 metres, and the prasat itself 7.67 metres. What stands on the summit is therefore a building caught mid-construction eight or nine centuries ago, which is rare and which is most of the interest.
And yet the department is equally clear that the unfinished sanctuary was used. Its account says that although the building was not completed, ritual was performed in it. That matters for how a visitor should read the site: not as an abandoned project but as a working Shaiva sanctuary that was simply never decorated. The department also links the horizon this monument belongs to with the Bodhisattva sculpture in the triangular structure at Tham Phra in Phu Phra Bat Historical Park in Udon Thani, which it dates to the same late 16th to 17th Buddhist century and reads as showing strong influence from Preah Vihear. The two provinces belong to one artistic moment, and this peak is the most complete surviving statement of it in Sakon Nakhon.
The prasat itself: sandstone throughout, on a laterite base, square in plan with redented corners, 7.67 metres high by the Tourism Authority's figure, and open to the sky.
The tie-beams set in place across the top and never built over — the clearest physical evidence anywhere in the province of a Khmer sanctuary abandoned mid-construction.
Bare stone faces with no decorative carving, which the Fine Arts Department names as the specific mark of the building's incompleteness rather than as weathering.
The rectangular mondop joined to the front of the prasat, and the two low tiers of the platform at 1.58 and 0.70 metres.
The 491 steps up, and the view over the plain towards Nong Han from the summit — the reason a temple-mountain was sited here at all.
This is a working place of worship for millions of people rather than an attraction, and it is treated as one at the gate. Where a figure below is blank, no source we are prepared to cite states it.
| Hours | Daily, 06.00 to 18.00, as published by the Tourism Authority of Thailand |
|---|---|
| Admission | Not established from an official source. |
| Dress | An open-air monument on a mountain within a monastery's land. Cover shoulders and knees, and bring water — the climb is 491 steps with no shelter. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | Highway 22 from Sakon Nakhon towards Udon Thani for about twenty-two kilometres, then a signposted left turn for a further fourteen kilometres, and then 491 steps on foot, as the Tourism Authority of Thailand gives the route. |
Every temple reference repeats claims nobody has checked. These are the ones we went looking for and could not stand up, listed so you know exactly where this page stops.
No state source read for this page explains it. The Fine Arts Department records only the fact — that the decorative carving was never cut and the building was never completed — while also recording that ritual was performed in it anyway. The explanations in circulation are legends.
491, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand. There is no vehicle access to the monument itself.
Daily from 06.00 to 18.00, as published by the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
Hindu, and specifically Shaiva: the Fine Arts Department describes a temple-mountain with a shivalinga as its principal object. The Tourism Authority records that it was later adapted to Buddhist use, without dating the change.
Two government bodies disagree. The Fine Arts Department gives about 522 metres above mean sea level and the Tourism Authority gives 544 metres; this page prints both rather than choosing.
Before you go, read the guide to Buddhism and temple etiquette in Thailand — dress, footwear, where photography is not welcome and how to behave around monks. The rest of Sakon Nakhon’s temples are covered here too.
Every temple here sits in a place worth reading about on its own terms. The nationwide temple guide covers the other provinces to the same documentary standard as this page, and says on each one what the record establishes and what it does not.
If you are thinking about more than a visit: work out which Thai visa route fits your situation, and see what is available to rent and buy in residences across Thailand.
Every fact on this page is drawn from the sources above. Where they disagree, this page says so rather than choosing silently. Registrations, fees, hours and access change; confirm anything you are relying on with the authority concerned. BAANLYY LLC is a Nevada company and a listing portal, does not represent any temple, and offers no legal or religious advice.