Destination Cambodia

Siem Reap & Angkor

Siem Reap is the name of the town only a stone throw away from the impressing Temples of Angkor.. The small and lively town of Siem Reap is rapidly developing in order to cope with the static raising numbers of tourists. From luxuries hotels to guest houses Siem Reap offers a very wide range of accommodation possibilities for every size of wallet. Famous for its (night) life within and around the Pub Street and the Night Market area the town offers a great variety of pubs, and different Khmer or European style restaurants. Besides the development of the town in recent years Siem Reap made to manage to keep its charm of a typically Cambodian city; the market area with screaming, shouting, and negotiating marketers and the Remok (motorized Rickshaw) drivers on every corner on the one hand and the curious tourists on the other hand. As well as the city the beautiful countryside with its green paddy fields and the wooden houses allow Siem Reap to offer the full package of being a tourist destination. But frankly, Siem Reap hasn’t earned worldwide glory for being a charming little city in the north of Cambodia but being the place where to find some of the most impressing and breathtaking pieces of history in the world – the temples of Angkor Wat.

In the ninth century, the Khmer established Angkor as the capital of their huge kingdom stretching from present-day Thailand to Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. For the next six centuries they ruled one of the largest empires in South East Asia. Angkor cultivated a power base of a mighty military and political force, and a rich and sophisticated civilization. The ruins seen today represent successive capitals constructed by a dozen Khmer kings, between the 9th and 13th Centuries. These were cities of massive stone temples, wide majestic causeways, thrusting towers and imposing gates. The sheer size and magnificence of Angkor Wat is compelling. With a full restoration program by the Ecole Francaise d’Extreme Orient that began in 1908 and continuing to this day the monuments of Angkor, now open to all, have been regaining their claim as one of mankind’s greatest feats of construction.

“My desire is, not to impose my opinions on any one, especially with regard to the wonderful architectural remains which I have visited, but simply to disclose the existence of these monuments, which are certainly the most gigantic, and also to my mind display a more perfect taste than any left to us by the ancients…”

Henri Mouhot, Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China (Siam), Cambodia and Laos, 1864

Explorers, adventurers, missionaries and Ambassadors have recorded visits to the Angkor Temples for well over eight hundred years, describing the monumental remnants of what was once a thriving culture that spread from the Mekong Delta to the north of Laos and occupied most of modern day Thailand. This Cambodian empire has left some of the greatest buildings and sandstone carvings depicting the religious figures of Vishnu, Shiva, Uma, Hanuman and their epic deeds one the one hand. Whilst on the other, are enduring images of everyday life by the shores of the huge internal Ton Le Sap Lake that rises and lowers according to the Mekong River’s annual flooding.

Deep in the north west of Cambodia lie the temples of Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm, Preah Khan and Banteay Srei. With some smaller temple of Neak Pean, Ta Som, Banteay K’Dei, Ta Keo, Thommanon and Chau Say Tevoda can be included according to your client’s interest and activity level.

Satellite photos suggest further mounds of earth, unseen by the naked eye at ground level that could benefit from exploration.

Temples around Siem Reap

The majestic temples of Angkor in northwest Cambodia belong to the classic period of Khmer art and civilization. Today, a millennium after they were built, they awe visitors with their perfection and enormity. The below list is far from exhaustive, but provides general information on the main temples found to be of interest to the visitor today.

For those visitors with time and interest you will find that three days exploring this magnificent area will be of benefit. A shorter visit encompassing 2 days and 1 night would be adequate for those that simply require a glimpse of these architectural treasures.

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat is the largest religious temple in the world, with a volume of stone equaling that of the Cheops pyramid in Egypt. It is unlike all the other Khmer temples in that it faces west, and 12th Century Hinduism inspires it. Its symmetrical towers are stylized on the modern Cambodian flag.

Conceived by Suryavarman II, Angkor Wat took an estimated 30 years to build. It is generally believed to have been a funeral temple for the king. It has been occupied continuously by Buddhist monks and is well preserved.

Intricate bas-reliefs surround Angkor Wat on four sides. Each tells a story. The most celebrated of these is the Churning of the Ocean of Milk, which is located on the east wing. In it, the Naga serpent is twisted by demons and gods to produce the elixir of life.

The way the light glows on the ancient stones makes sunset the best time to wander through Angkor Wat’s two square kilometers, climb its towers and ponder its creators.

Angkor Thom

The ancient walled city of Angkor Thom, literally “Great city,” built in the 12th Century by Jayavarman VII, contains the famous Bayon temple with its more than 200 enormous mysterious faces. It also contains the 300 meter long Elephant Terrace with its large sculptured royal elephants and mythical Garudas, the half-man and half-bird figures. Also within the walled area is a massive terrace named after the 15th century sculpture of the “Leper King” that was thought to be atop the northern platform; it seems however it is replica of Yama.

Preah Khan

Preah Khan is an extensive monastic complex covering over 56 hectares built by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII as a monastery and teaching complex. It is located in the northern part of Angkor, a short distance beyond the northern gate of the Angkor Thom precinct. It is one of a group of temple complexes situated on a small ‘Baray’ or water tank including the temples of Neak Pean and the monastic complex of Ta Som. Together these structures constitute one of Angkor’s major axial arrangements and hydrological complexes.

Today Preah Khan is in a state of ruin resulting from a slow decline due to its loss of royal patronage in the middle of the 15th Century. There is evidence that some of the temples and shrines have remained in use probably through the 17th Century. It was not until the end of the 19th Century that Preah Khan, like many of the other Angkor sites, was ‘rediscovered’. During the 1940s the archaeological team of the Ecole Francaise d’Extreme Orient (EFEO) undertook some consolidation and reconstruction projects in Preah Khan all of which were carefully documented and were subsequently made available to the World Monument Fund (WMF) since the fund’s inception at Preah Khan in 1992.

The World Monuments Fund is a non-profit private foundation based in New York, U.S.A, whose purpose is to assist in the preservation of man’s most significant artistic and architectural heritage through the planning, orchestration and funding of major conservation projects worldwide. WMF sent its first team to Angkor in 1989 and since then has organized and supported further missions to Angkor which so far have concentrated on undertaking research and preliminary conservation activities at Preah Khan.

An important component of the program is the ‘on-site’ training of Cambodian students of architecture and archaeology from the University of Beaux Arts in Phnom Penh who are working under the supervision of the WMF team. The project also provides a training ground in construction crafts, where experienced workers are passing their skills onto a new generation.

This program has made Preah Khan once again a teaching centre where skills learned through practical conservation work will renew the vitality of the Angkor monuments and contribute to their future preservation.

Ta Prohm is the temple that has been left largely in its natural state since its "re-discovery" by French archeologists. Surrounded by jungle, its labyrinth of stone hallways is overgrown with the roots and limbs of massive silk cotton trees, which envelop the stone like tentacles. It is one of the largest temples at Angkor, dedicated in 1186 to the King’s mother. Historians have noted its mystical charm. Its close connection with nature makes it easy for the imagination to roam back to the days when it housed the Angkor kings in splendor.

Banteay Srei

The Citadel of Women, the most beautiful of the temples in Siem Reap, some 34 kilometres north of Siem Reap town. Remarkable for its total restoration, this small temple built by Brahmins for human use rather than for use by god-kings has the finest pink sandstone carving in Cambodia. These carvings can be seen at close quarter clearly telling extracts of the Ramayana. Incorporated in long stay tours in Siem Reap, Banteay Srei is an essential temple to visit.

Banteay Samre

Another total restoration project has delivered a small scale of Angkor style architecture and of a size that permits the visitor to closely appreciate the intricacies that are often obscured by the immense size of Angkor Wat. Seldom visited, it is inaccessible in the wet monsoon season; this temple can be wandered through at your own pace.

Beng Mealea

“Lotus Pond” Temple from the early 11th Century built by Suryavarman II as a Hindu Temple, about 2 hours drive from Siem Reap. If there is one temple to explore resplendent with jungle engulfing it, it is Beng Mealea. Clambering over large sandstone blocks to reach the inner sanctuary and eerie worship corridor is an exploration to remember. Situated 60 km east of Angkor Wat, through traditional countryside life, over bumpy roads, Beng Mealea is a temple hidden in a maze of jungle.

Architecturally, Beng Mealea is noted for its innovative, in its time, construction of hallways, it was a very large temple with wide galleries foreshadowing Angkor Wat. Garudas, hold up an outer platform, finer in detail than those to be found out in the elements of the Elephant Terrace at Angkor Thom.

Surprises of fallen lintels with intricate carvings lay amongst the fallen wall and roofs.

Georges Groslier writes in 1916 of Beng Mealea “There emanates from Beng Mealea a harmony, powerful and sober, which permits to place this temple first amongst the first and to consider it the prototype, the classical and purified specimen of Khmer art”.

Roluos Group

Hariharalaya, the earliest capital in the Siem Reap area has left the Roluos group of Temples- Bakong, Preah Ko and Lo Lei. Sandstone was used rather than bricks in the construction of Bakong, fine carvings are to be found at both Preah Ko and Lo Lei.

Neak Pean

A sandstone constructed pond, in times gone by, known to provide unusual healing powers, Neak Pean is secluded amongst a dense forest grove. Each of the four spouts reputedly provided those who bathed or drank of the waters specific cures according to the direction of the compass. These days the lowered surrounding water table robs the pond of its magical waters during the dry season. A partially restored figure of Ou Chay Svara, a mythical horse that saved people caught in a nautical mishap, is within the pond.

Ta Som

A smallish Buddhist temple with well carved Apsara and a huge Banyan tree on the East gate makes Ta Som a special photographic stop along the Grand Circuit.

Pre Rup

Situated amongst rice paddy fields and made of bricks rather than carved sandstone, Pre Rup’s depiction of Mount Meru is a classic example of early Hindu design.

East Mebon

Located in the middle of the giant Eastern Baray (a former reservoir), East Mebon no longer needs a small boat to ferry visitors across to this Temple dedicated to Shiva.

Thommanon

Recently restored, this small temple affords beautiful Apsara carvings and a chance to wander around a peaceful clearing on the way to Ta Prohm in one direction or the Elephant Terrace in the other.

Chau Say Tevoda

Similar to Thommanon and on the other side of the road, Chau Say Thevoda is an example of a small-scale restoration project in progress.