The temples outside of Siem Rep, Cambodia, were built between the 9th and 13th centuries by the ancient Khmer empire, and they fall in stark contrast to the state of the country today. The empire, at that time, stretched from Burma to Vietnam and the capital at Angkor boasted over one million residents when London had a scant fifty thousand. The temples were built by the God-Kings and served as the religious and social nexus. Only the heads of faith and government were allowed to inhabit stone dwellings, so the multitude of wooden structures comprising most of the city, are long gone. In the 1800's, a French archaeologist visiting Cambodia learned of the massive temples, long buried by jungle, and brought them back into the world's view.
The Kingdom of Cambodia has had an extraordinarily tumultuous past, and the temples serve as a point of pride for all Khmers. As well they should because they are outstanding. On our first day, we visited Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm, and Bayon among others. The heat was overwhelming and the temple steps were tall and steep. Despite the scorching ball of fire beating down on us, we had an amazing time visiting the temples and admiring how the intricate artwork adorning them could remain intact after so many centuries. An interesting note about Ta Prohm, the tumbling structures and trees shooting up between the building blocks gives it an incredible ambiance. That's why it was chosen to be used in the Tombraider movie.
The second day, we awoke early to visit Angkor Wat for sunrise. The carved stone murals blanketing the massive walls told stories of historical and religious importance. Of course the favorite of Matt and I was King Rama's monkey army attacking invaders. I can't recall the names of the other temples we visited that day, but I fondly recall my siesta (Matt and I decided to take a break during the hottest hours) in a breezy restaurant hammock. Before we headed back to the hotel that day, we took a ride up on a giant helium balloon (raised and lowered every 15 minutes) to view the temples from above. It wasn't worth the money, but the pictures pretty decent.
On the third day, I had developed a rather severe upset stomach which shortened the day substantially. First, we saw Banteay Srei before heading to the Cambodia Landmine Museum which was amazing. Aki Ra was a child soldier for the Khmer Rouge, who slaughtered his family and forced him to lay thousands of landmines. After Pol Pot lost power, Aki Ra became his own man and the morals deep within him found strength and bubbled to the surface. He founded the landmine museum to educate people and provide funds to care for his adopted family of children who were orphaned or maimed by mines. He still spends all of his free time out in the countryside locating and defusing hidden mines using only his toe and a shovel. For information about the museum or to donate, please visit the website. After the museum, we saw Banteay Samre then headed back to rest, buy souvenirs and pack for Thailand.
The pictures in this post are: the view of the Angkor Wat complex and moat from above, a shoebox-size carving at Ta Prohm, a tree oozing out between blocks at Ta Prohm with a surprisingly large termite in the trunk, faces and carvings at Bayon, Angkor Wat at sunrise, a detail of the monkey army mural (I couldn't get a good shot of one of the head-biting monkeys so I though foot- or knee-biting would work), another favorite carving of I don't know what, and domesticating a wild elephant at Banteay Samre.
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