However many times you’ve seen Angkor Wat in photographs or films, nothing can quite prepare you for what unfolds as you visit the temple. Dominated by five corn-cob towers and consecrated in 1150 to the Hindu god Vishnu, it’s considered a masterpiece of Khmer architecture. Scholars are largely […]
Largely overlooked by visitors, Prasat Kravan is just 500m south of Banteay Kdei and is worth a quick 10 minute stop to explore. Known as the Cardamon Sanctuary, it comprises of a row of five brick and sandstone towers sitting on a low platform in a field. It’s not […]
Banteay Kdei (meaning Citadel of the Cells) is thought to have been constructed originally by Rajendravaran in the mid 10th century. In many respects you can draw parallels between this temple and Ta Prohm, although as the complex had remained in continual use right up until the 1960s, so […]
Long ago a decision was made to leave the jungle in place at Ta Prohm, as a result it has become the most evocative, iconic, and most photographed of all the ruins at Angkor. Enormous Kapok trees grow from its walls and terraces, their massive roots clinging to […]
Consecrated to Shiva in around 962 A.D, Pre Rup is a state temple of Rajendravarman, the son of Jayavarman IV. The name of the temple literally means “turning the body”, a reference to a cremation ritual. Pre-Rup is a typical “temple mountain”, but on a slightly larger scale to […]
Banteay Srei was not built by a king, but by two local dignitaries, Yajnavaraha, a trusted guru to king Rajendravarman II, and his brother. It was consecrated in 967 A.D. The temple was primarily dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. and was originally called Tribhuvanamaheśvara (great lord of the threefold world). The […]
Bakong is part of a group of temples known as Roluos, so called after a nearby village of that name. The monuments of the Roluos group are dispersed over the former site of the royal city of Hariharalaya, and contain some of the earliest structures of the Angkor period. […]
Preah Ko is part of a group of temples known as Roluos, so called after a nearby village of that name. The monuments of the Roluos group are dispersed over the former site of the royal city of Hariharalaya, and contain some of the earliest structures of the […]
Kevin Standage 
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