Prasat Phanom Wan (, ), also locally known as Wat Phanom Wan (, ) is a Theravada Buddhist temple, or wat, in Mueang Nakhon Ratchasima District, Nakhon Ratchasima Province. It was first constructed as a Hindu temple and later converted into a Buddhist temple, regarded as one of the largest Khmer Buddhist temples in Thailand.
It is thought to have been built in the 11th century. Excavations have produced prehistoric remains at the site, among them a number of Iron Age burials. Sarah Talbot also records the remains of a small tower of red sandstone and brick of the seventh to ninth centuries, on Siribhadra and others. A stone building was raised over it in the 13th and 14th centuries. Although most of the complex is ruined, the main prang, a stupa in Khmer style, and a tiered stupa still stand. The main stupa facing east was built of sandstone and was connected to the cloister by a square path long and wide. The stupa has three arched gateways. The north gate enshrines a standing Buddha statue in the posture of forgiveness, in Ayutthaya style.
A laterite wall surrounds the sanctuary. In its southwestern part stands a sandstone stupa called "Prang Noi" (, ), with a large Buddha statue inside. Outside the wall, tall gopura gateways stand on all four sides. The east side of the sanctuary features the trace of a baray, a reservoir ringing a Khmer Hindu temple and assumed to represent the cosmic ocean of Hindu cosmology, and an earth hill.
A pavilion at the site is described as built to welcome Jayavarman VII or his representative, said to have come to Phanom Wan in the 13th century to worship the Buddha statue.
Its Khmer style resembles Prasat Phimai in the same province but the size is smaller. It stands on the route between Khorat, the city of Nakhon Ratchasima, and Prasat Phimai. The Fine Arts Department registered the sanctuary as an ancient monument in 1936.
Survey of the surrounding region found Phanom Wan and Phimai to be the only two large Khmer complexes on the alluvial plain of the Mun, where temple remains are otherwise scarce. The rise in ceremonial sites and reservoirs through the phase of about 1000 to 1300 concentrates around the two. One of four large rectangular earth-walled enclosures recorded in that phase stands near the temple. It shows no surface trace of occupation and holds a mound within its walls, and like the others it lies near a Khmer temple without enclosing one. The enclosures have been read as possibly structured gardens with ponds and circulating water, on a Javanese model.
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