The Temples of Anghor - Anghor Wat!!

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15/09/06 - 17/09/06 Siem Reap and the Anghor Temples

Angkor Wat is the biggest religious structure in the world and certainly the most famous of the Siem Reap area.

Looking back now, the three days seem like a blur of facts and I won't even try to give details of dates of construction and what the wall carvings show. There are many guides to Angkor with so much information;

For me, the visit was about just wandering amongst the stones, enjoying ducking through crumbling doorways and finding detailed carvings in remote corners. From dark dank corners into bright sunlight, grey stone, pink sandstone and light green moss contrast beautifully against the blue sky.

We visited Angkor both in the daytime and early morning to watch the sunrise. Another temple, Phnom Bakheng is popular at sunset and sits high on a hill above the forest. Both are mobbed with tourists at these special times of the day.

Bayon is beautiful for the large stone heads and Ta Promh famous for Tomb Raider 2 has nature overtaking the temple with trees snaking amongst the stone.

We took a tethered balloon for a birds eye view of Angkor Wat and the surrounding area. It was well worth it to appreciate the size of the structure that sits within it's square moat.

Bantey Srey is a beautiful temple with intricate pink sandstone carved walls and Banteay Kdei was our most enjoyable experience, merely because we had the whole site to ourselves to wander aimlessly throughout the crooked walls and crumbling stone. Preah Khan, the temple of the sacred sword and Neak Pean, the island temple with 4 pools of healing waters rounded of our time and we were all templed out!

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Comments

[anonymous]

Your pictures are fantastic. thank you

[stan]

great job
your phtographs are great...especially with the kids...