Dan's Adventure

Yesterday I posted about the more remote ruins of Angkor and today I will be continuing the series with the main temples of the Angkor area. The Angkor area is around 6km from Siem Reap, with the roads in good condition and the temples only a couple of kilometers apart, I decided to hire a bike and cycle between them. I hired a bike from the guest house for $1 and set off just after 5am to try and catch sunrise at Angkor Wat. I later paid the price for getting such a cheap bike when the chain snapped on the return journey. Fortunately a few young children came running over straight away, “I help you, I help you” they shouted as they led me over the road to another kid with lots of spare bike parts. After a lot of banging, a couple of replacement links and a couple of dollars lighter, I was on my way again to catch sunset at Phnom Bakkheng.

Prasat Kraven

Prasat Kraven is the only example of brick bas-reliefs in the Angkor area.

Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm, aka Tomb Raider temple, is entwined with tree roots. Major restoration work is currently being carried out on the main entrance to Ta Prohm and inside many areas are out of bounds for safety reasons, but there is still a large area left to explore. Ta Prohm is definitely the most atmospheric temple that I visited.

Banteay Kdei

Banteay Kdei was interesting as it is largely unrestored. I like when you can see the effects of natural deterioration set against the restoration work showing how it once looked.

Ta Keo

Ta Keo isn’t the most attractive of temples but its featured here because its stairs were a bitch to climb in the late morning. Steep and narrow, coming down them was a lot more difficult than going up.

Angkor Thom

Angkor Thom is a 3km squared walled and moated royal city and was the last capital of the Angkor empire. There are five gates to the city, one at each cardinal point, and another, Victory Gate, leading to the Royal Palace area. The photos above show the Terrace of the Lepar King and the Terrace of Elephants. Bayon is also within Angkor Thom, but it deserves an entry of its own.

Bayon

Bayon is the temple of faces. Of the 37 stone towers, most but not all, have four carved faces facing the cardinal points. There is no definitive answer as to who the faces represent, claims have been made for various gods over the years, but there is no evidence to support any one claim. The faces have come to be recognised as a classic example of Khmer art.

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat is the pride of Cambodia, it is instantly recognisable, features on the national flag and has a pretty decent beer named after it. Angkor Wat is a three tiered pyramid crowned with five towers, the largest of all the temples of Angkor. The temple is surrounded by an exterior wall and moat, whilst the temple itself covers an area of 1km squared. As you can see in the first picture above, Angkor Wat is currently undergoing restoration work. I was impressed by how tastefully the restoration work has been carried out at Angkor and by the efforts to furter excavate some sites. I’m just glad its not in China because if it were, an escalator and lift would surely be fitted. The artwork contained within the walls of Angkor Wat is also very impressive, intricate carvings and sculptures fill the walls.

The final part of the series will come tomorrow and will feature the temples to the east of Siem Reap, the Roluos Group.