Photo Galleries

Angkor Temples 1

October 2008

If you buy a multiday pass for the Angkor complex after 5 p.m., you can get in that night for free. So we raced to iconic Angkor Wat just before it closed to see the sunset. The place was mobbed (as always!) and we missed the setting sun, but we got an unexpected consolation prize: the full moon rising over the central towers of the famous temple. The next morning, we got to the site in time for sunrise and then began our exploration by focusing on some smaller and quieter temples east of Angkor Wat, which were built between 920 and about 1200 AD: Banteay Kdei, Ta Prohm, Thommanon, and Prasat Kra

Late afternoon crowds outside the main temple of Angkor Wat

We missed the sunset we were hoping to photograph but were rewarded with a full moon rising over the temple

Sunrise the next day over the 900-year-old Srah Srang reservoir

Scaffolding on the carved terrace next to the reservoir kept Melissa from getting the shot she wanted

A carved lion greets the rising sun

The east gatehouse to Banteay Kdei temple, across the street from the reservoir

At 6:30 a.m., we had the ruins of Banteay Kdei all to ourselves!

A venerated statue of the Buddha at Banteay Kdei (the temple was built around the time Cambodia's state religion was changing from Hinduism to Buddhism)

A carved dancer or female diety from the Hindu period

A giant silk-cotton tree growing next to Banteay Kdei

Kids peddling souvenirs are common at the Angkor complex; we helped them practice English and gave them pieces of mango but didn't buy anything (many aid groups say it's better not to fuel the demand for child labor)

The temple-monastary of Ta Prohm (begun in 1186 to honor a king's mother) has been left in a less reconstructed state to show how the Angkor temples looked when Europeans reached them in the 1800s

Ta Prohm is especially famous for its tree roots, but some are gradually being removed to keep them from further breaking apart the stones

Such a polite sign (at an area closed for reconstruction)

The multiheaded serpeant called a naga is a common motif in Angkor carvings

Carving over a doorway (whether of a king or a Hindu god is hard to say)

Carvings of devatas (female detities) in pointed headdresses are common in the Angkor temples

Angkor builders frequently incorporated false (trompe l'oeil) doors and windows in their temples

Exterior of the temple of Ta Keo, which we drove past but were too hot and tired to visit

Carvings at the temple of Thommanon

Our last stop for the day: the little temple of Prasat Kravan (built in 921). It differs from other Angkor temples by being made entirely of brick.

Carved octagonal columns were a common feature of Angkor architecture

Inscriptions on a doorway

Prasat Kravan has the only examples of brick bas relief carving known in ancient Cambodian art

The Hindu god Vishnu

Vishnu's consort Lakshmi (with lots of worshipers)