About a thousand years ago, the area that makes up today's Buriram Province was under the Khmer Empire and many ruins remain from that time. The largest, standing on an extinct volcano, is in the Phanom Rung historical park. According to an inscription found there, its local ruler recognised the authority of the Khmer king. However, the area was remote and sparsely populated, and little is recorded about it until it the Bangkok Period of Thai history. In the early nineteenth century, MuangPae, the largest town, acknowledged Thai sovereignty and was renamed Buriram.