Nong Hong Sanctuary

Three brick prangs stand on a shared laterite platform at Nong Hong Sanctuary, a Khmer Hindu shrine built in the Baphuon style and dated to roughly the 11th century — about a century before Phanom Rung and Angkor Wat. It sits in Non Din Daeng district, Buriram’s southernmost corner near the Cambodian border, more than 100 kilometres south of Buriram city past Lam Nang Rong Dam.

The three towers face east and sit on one continuous base rather than separate platforms. Only the front doorway on the central prang is a working entrance; the other three sides are false doors carved into the brickwork, a standard Khmer technique for framing a sanctuary tower without cutting structural openings on every face. Carved lintel fragments survive around the doorways, though centuries of monsoon weathering have blurred most of the detail. No roof survives and there’s no interior chamber to speak of — what remains is the brick shell of the towers and the base they share.

Brick construction like this predates the sandstone megaliths further north at Phanom Rung and Phimai — Khorat Plateau Khmer sites moved from brick to carved sandstone as building techniques advanced over the following centuries. That makes Nong Hong an earlier, plainer example of the same religious tradition rather than a smaller version of the same architecture: it was built as a Hindu shrine, not a Buddhist one, in an era when the Khmer empire was extending its reach across what’s now northeastern Thailand.

Insider Tip: Nong Hong sees almost no visitors even on weekends. Where Phanom Rung, roughly an hour north, draws coach parties for its hilltop sunrise alignment, this site is usually empty enough that you’ll have the ruins to yourself.

Rice paddies and thin forest surround the sanctuary. Lam Nang Rong Dam sits nearby and draws a handful of local anglers rather than tour buses. There’s no gift shop, no ticket window, and no crowd noise — just wind through the trees and the occasional truck on the district road.

Watch out: There’s no shade at the ruins and nothing sold on site — bring water and sun protection, since the nearest shops are back in Non Din Daeng town, not at the sanctuary itself.

Visit in the cooler months (November-February) or early morning even in the dry season, since there’s no shelter from midday sun. It pairs naturally with a stop at Lam Nang Rong Dam rather than standing as a half-day destination on its own — Nong Hong is a quick, self-guided look at unrestored 11th-century brickwork, not a rival to Phanom Rung’s scale. If you’re building a Khmer-temple route through Buriram, it’s worth the detour precisely because almost nobody else makes it.