Cambodia

The world's largest religious monument, a 12th-century Khmer temple-city at the heart of the Angkor Archaeological Park; its lotus-bud towers rise above a wide moat and laterite walls in an icon of Cambodian identity.

A forested mountain reserve rising to 1,079 metres in Cambodia's southern Cardamom range, known for its abandoned 1920s French colonial hill station, the crumbling Bokor Palace Hotel, and cool cloud-forest conditions that contrast sharply with the coastal heat below.

A Khmer Empire Hindu sanctuary dedicated to Shiva, built on a 525-metre cliff at the edge of the Dangrek Plateau overlooking the Cambodian plains; its dramatic location and uninterrupted 9th-to-12th-century architectural sequence make it one of the most memorable temple sites in Southeast Asia.

The gilded spires and tiered rooftops of Cambodia's royal palace rise above the Mekong riverside in Phnom Penh; the compound has housed Khmer monarchs since 1866 and is the spiritual and ceremonial heart of the kingdom.

Cambodia's premier coastal resort area on the Gulf of Thailand, centred on the deep-water port of Sihanoukville and fringed by a string of sandy bays — Otres, Serendipity and Sokha — that have evolved from backpacker hang-out to a diversifying resort destination.

The former Security Prison S-21, where the Khmer Rouge imprisoned and tortured up to 20,000 people between 1975 and 1979; preserved as a museum, its cramped cells and wall-sized photographs make it one of the most confrontational historical sites in Southeast Asia.