One of many mysteries from the breakaway city of Koh Ker, located some 120 kms northeast of Angkor, centers on where the Royal Palace of King Jayavarman IV would’ve been located during his tenure during the second-quarter of the 10th century. Clearly Prasat Thom and the Prang-pyramid were at the religious heart of the capital, but scholars believe that the abundancy of tiles, ceramics and laterite foundations next to an ancient artificial pond known as Andong Preng, may’ve been the location of the King’s wooden dwellings, which have not survived the intervening 1,000 years, much the same as Jayavarman VII’s wooden palace has disappeared from view at Angkor Thom. Andong Preng’s (‘well of destiny’) rectangular basin measures 50 by 25 meters, located 500 meters south of Prasat Thom, may’ve acted as the King’s royal bathing pool or religious retreat and is lined on all sides with large sandstone steps on a laterite base. It is fed by an underground stream and is holding more water today than in the past, according to archaeologists, with shards of pottery and fossilized wood easily found a little south of the pond, in the area of the long-lost palace. Research has also identified some Chinese ceramics from the site dated as late as the 15th century, indicating that Koh Ker was not abandoned in the middle of the tenth century, but was occupied on a much-reduced scale for centuries afterwards. Today, it’s one of the quietest areas amongst the grouping of more than fifty temples that are visited by relatively few tourists.