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Published: April 23rd 2006
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We came to Siem Reap, Cambodia to see Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples. Over a period of 300 years, between 900 and 1200 AD, the Khmer empire produced some of the world's most amazing temples. The temples were declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1992. Since then much needed assistance has been provided to preserve this site. It's no easy feat, while the main temple of Angkor Wat is the most famous, the actual area is spread out over some 40 square miles and contains 36+ main sites and temples! You can get a sense of scale if you check out this:
MAP.
During our week there, we toured the complex for 3 solid 10 hour days. We started every morning between 6-6:30 AM to beat the heat and the crowds. We loved the magic of the rising sunlight on the stone. The place is really a sight to behold. And luckily with those 40 sq. miles of temples, it was not hard to avoid the crowds. We had some really nice solitary experiences which we could not have when we visited Machu Picchu. The sheer magnitude of this temple complex is utterly awe inspiring. Imagine, around the
main temple of Angkor Wat, there is a 4 MILE moat!!!
To open the photo album, double click on the first photo. We stayed at a wonderful guest house called
Villa Siem Reap. We hadn't stayed at such a nice guest house since January in Hong Kong and it was a welcome break to be in a nice room with some comforts. Especially when we would come back after 10 hours of touring around! We used their tuk tuk driver, Mr. Sopheara who was worth every penny and with his and the owners' help we were able to have a wonderful experience touring off the beaten track.
For me (Suruchi) it was especially interesting to see the blend of Hindu and Buddhist representations throughout the temples. Both of these religions are very special to me and I felt like these temples represented me in many ways. The intricate carving style, the winding corridors, hidden rooms, dramatic roots and scale of these temples really caught our fancy. Even through the 100 degree heat and long days, we stayed excited, happy and amazed. We chose to go on tour on our own so we wouldn't be distracted by lots of information
and frustrated by a tour guide's pace of rushing from one sight to the next. Although it would have been really nice to get all of the information that so interests us both, we are glad we "discovered" the beauty of Angkor on our own. We took an MP3 player with us and shared the sounds of some great music in some secluded areas. By the end of the third day we were fully saturated and were glad to have a couple of days to rest before heading to Thailand. I would really suggest 2-3 full days for the temples and at least 1 day completely on your own to explore.
Yes, it's true that these temples were made famous by Tomb Raider, but man, a movie's got NOTHING on how spectacular the temples actually are when you're standing in front of them. It literally brings tears to your eyes. The sounds, the piles of fantastic rubble and whimsical designs makes you wonder what was made in the past 100 years that may inspire this kind of awe in the people of the future. Did these kingdoms know how great these structures were when they built them?
Thinking
Ta Phrom
These roots are massive! Look at the size of it under me! of going? Check out this fantastic
FREE Online Guide that you can download!
If you're interested in some history and facts please read on. The following was gathered from AngkorWat.org For hundreds of years, the lost city of Angkor was itself a legend. Cambodian peasants living on the edge of the thick jungle around the Tonle Sap lake reported findings which puzzled the French colonialists who arrived in Indo-China in the 1860s. The peasants said they had found "temples built by gods or by giants." Their stories were casually dismissed as folktales by the pragmatic Europeans. Yet some did believe that there really was a lost city of a Cambodian empire which had once been powerful and wealthy, but had crumbled many years before.
Henri Mahout's "discovery" of the Angkor temples in 1860 opened up this 'lost city' to the world. The legend became fact and a stream of explorers, historians and archaeologists came to Angkor to explain the meaning of these vast buildings. The earliest of these scholars could not believe that Angkor had been built by the Cambodian people, believing the temples to have been built by another race who had conquered and occupied Cambodia maybe 2,000 years
Ta Phrom Rubble
There were piles of rubble everywhere. It was hard to imagine if it was so amazing when much of it had fallen how awe inspiring it must have been when it was intact. before. Gradually, some of the mysteries were explained, the Sanskrit inscriptions deciphered and the history of Angkor slowly pieced together, mainly by French scholars in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The Hindu religion played a vital part in the development of the Khmer temple. This religion became established in Cambodia by the second or third century and temples were built to honor Hindu gods. It was Jayavarman II (c. AD800 to AD850) who introduced the cult of devaraja into Cambodia, establishing the king as a representative of the Hindu god Siva. From this time temples were being built to honor both the god and the king. During the next two reigns, the practice of each new king building his own temple which became his tomb on his death, was firmly established.
It was also Jayavarman II who made the first attempt at a pyramid temple, imitating the cosmic mountain of Hindu mythology, Mount Meru. This form would gradually evolve over the next 350 years to its most complex and brilliant creation, the Temple of Angkor Wat.
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Josh - Wild Planet Adventures
non-member comment
So great to see the world through your eyes
Hey Robin, Great photos, as always. I've been following your journey and really admire the gift you've given yourself. Never did tell you what a great thing it was to see your pic of the jaguar in Peru, and your other photos are outstanding...I'd love to use some on my website, if that's ok with you! These Angkor Wat photos are really inspiring to me, I just had to let you know. I'd love to talk to you about logistics in S.E. Asia, as I'm preparing a scouting trip myself to add a few more wildlife destinations to my slate of trips, starting first with Thailand with possibile extensions to Sumatra and Malaysia. Did you come across any unique wildlife-rich areas in S.E. Asia? - Josh