On Top of the Mountain

The mountain is really a three-fold series of climbs. Near the very top, the view is almost breath-taking (the climb sure is). The vast flood plain of the Mekong is in clear view.

A nearby mountain is home to an ancient (probably Chenla) temple/monument. ($10 will get you a guide to take you up. On a motorbike!)

The hill we are on is strewn with boulders. Somehow it, and many similar hills across the generally flat land of central and southern Cambodia survived millenia of repeated rainy seasons and seasonal flooding.

I learned later that aquamarine and topaz are called pegmatite gemstones and occur in geologically similar conditions, along with rock crystal and smoky quartz, they "are formed in the vicinity of crystallizing granite bodies from the hydothermal solutions released by them" (Note One).

Whether the boulders I was seeing were pegmatite granite, I do not know, but the geological correlations indicate that where there is quartz and topaz, there may often also be aquamarine. The identification offered at the base of the mountain now seems less and less unlikely!

Note One: Bonewitz, Ronald Louis. "Rock and Gem: The definitive guide to rocks, minerals, gems and fossils", DK Books, page 35.