Siem Reap and Angkor Wat

Angkor Thom South gate

So, we arrived at Siem Reap for five days of temple bashing, it's not just Angkor Wat here, there are hundreds of them.

The Bayon, 'who are you looking at?'

First up for us was some of the sites in the Angkor Thom complex, founded by Jayavarman VII around the late 12th century. After passing through the South gate our first site was The Bayon.

intricate carvings

This is one of the more famous sites with carved face towers in abundance, it took about one hundred years to build.

Face off

According to our guide book there were originally forty nine face towers, most with faces on all four sides, but its not just about faces, there are some great scenes carved on many of the outer walls.

Dancing girls

On supporting columns there are carvings of Apsaras, or dancing girls. These were to be a theme in many of the temples visited, by the end of the five days I think Ruth was beginning to get a little bored of me taking pictures of them, still, one of the pictures might look nice if I take enough!

Phimeanakas elephant

The next port of call for us was Phimeanakas and the Royal Palace. Parts of this were built during the late 10th century under Jayavarman V but Pimeanakas was later, 11th century, by Udayadityavarman I. There wasn't a great deal to see (still impressive though), but we clocked our first stone elephant and it was directly on route to The Elephant Terrace so there was no point in missing it.

Fighting or just saying hello

This was built by Jayavarman VII & VIII in the late 12th century, it's three hundred metres long, about three metres high and is covered with elephant carvings, hence the name.

Inside the hidden trench

Next to this is The Leper King Terrace, built by Jayavarman VII during the 13th century, it's much smaller, only twenty five metres square but with many carvings, some in a 'hidden' trench.

Ta Prohn

After a long lunch it was back to the temples, this time it was Ta Prohm or, "The Tomb Raider one" as we heard it called. As we arrived the heavens opened so we had to buy yet more cheap water proofs, it also limited picture taking.

Detail of Apsara

Built during the reign of Jayavarman VII (busy builder that he was) and Indravarman II in the late 12th to 13th centuries, the temple monastery has been left in its natural state and is another of the more iconic and well known sites.

Tomb Raider

After a brief visit to Angkor Wat for a non existent sunset we retired for the day.

Angkor Wat at dusk

Angkor Wat, or is it Leeds Town hall?  The world's largest religious monument and a completely realised microcosm of the Hindu universe was built during the early 12th century by Suryavarman II.

Six dancing ladies

Angkor Wat is best known for sunrise pictures (from outside the temple), and in reality there is perhaps a reason for that, close up it seems dark and the sheer scale means that is is difficult to see the full picture. There are though, many fine bas relief sculptures of Apsaras and long corridors filled with sculpted scenes.

Modern day dancing girls in action

Prasat Kravan was built during the early 10th century and contain brick reliefs, this was a nice quiet spot after the crowds of Angkor Wat.

Prasat Kravan

Lakshmi and attendants in the N sanctuary

After Angkor Wat we went on to visit many of the sites on the 'long tour', a long morning/afternoon but we had decided that it was best to do just one visit to the temple area per day.

Pre Rup

Pre Rup was next, a large brick temple in a fairly ruinous state, not bad condition seeing as it was built during the 10th century.

Spot the elephant

East Mebon (10th century) was most notably for the many large elephant carvings at the corners of its terraces.

Ta Som

By now we were starting to get a bit 'templed out' so Ta Som, another face tower style temple made a pleasant change, especially as there were more bits with trees growing out which really adds to the atmosphere of the place.

Neak Pean

Neak Pean was different, just a load of ponds really! So it didn't take long if you exclude the ten minute walk there and back.

Preah Khan

Preah Khan (12th century) was our final temple of the day, a long day of about seven hours. Another fine temple with some tree growth and not too many people. On the out skirts was a small 'ginger bread cottage' which was a house of fire. Presumably there was a fire kept here but the function is unknown.

Preah Khan, house of fire