Pagoda Leu, Buddhist temple on Sihanoukville Mountain, Cambodia

Pagoda Leu is a Buddhist temple located at the top of Sihanoukville Mountain, enclosed by stone walls that define its sacred boundaries. The grounds contain multiple religious buildings and prayer spaces arranged in a compact layout typical of traditional Khmer temple design.

The temple on Sihanoukville Mountain is a modern Khmer Buddhist foundation; the sources give no founding date. Its hilltop position above the port city places it among the pagodas that served the town as it grew after the 1950s. Monks have kept it as an active place of worship through the decades since, including the Khmer Rouge years of 1975–1979, when religious practice across Cambodia was suppressed.

The temple serves as a focal point for the local Buddhist community, where daily prayers and ceremonies connect residents to their faith. You can observe monks in their robes moving through the grounds, maintaining spiritual routines that shape the rhythm of life here.

Dress code requires covering your shoulders and knees when visiting this active religious site. The temple sits atop a mountain requiring a climb with stairs, so visitors should be prepared for some physical exertion to reach the top.

The temple's best-known image is a white stone elephant carrying three seated Buddhas on its head, a grouping that recurs in Khmer Buddhist sculpture. Look for it among the shrine buildings on the summit; it is the detail most visitors photograph before turning to the view over Sihanoukville and the Gulf of Thailand.