Ruines d' Angkor Things to Do

The three temples of Pre Rup, Takeo and Mebon Oriental were built in the same architectural style and dedictaed to Hindu Gods.

The decorations are carved on mortar and stucco, different from the Angkor period temples (carvings done on sandstone). However, there isn't a lot of fancy cravings to wow you.

The silouhette of 3 towers on a raised terrace is the distinguishing factor of these 3 temples.

(I hope I have this one right..., the 3 temples confuse me) From the top of Pre Rup, it is possible to get a view of the Angkor Wat.

Ta Prohm is a very popular site where the tourists like to take pictures. It is good to visit the temple anytime of the day since it is shaded and cooling. The walk to the temple is cut through a forest which adds to the mystery and primitive of the place.

Roughly meaning "coiling serpeants", this temple was built during Jayavarman VII's reign.

It is not a very popular or big site. The main site shows a temple perched on a circular terrace with 2 serpeants coiled at the base. This stands in the middle of a pool.

Around the pool are four smaller shrines dedicated to 4 elements (air, water, fire and earth). Each element is represented by the horse, elephant, lion and human repectively and there is a statue of the animals in each shrine. In the past, devotees of each element (something like zodiac) will pray at the respective shrines.

There are 4 smaller pools in front of the shrines which were supposed to fill up during the rainy season and excess water will be chanelled to the pool in the middle.

Infront of the main shrine is a statue of a horse. This is based on a legend that a God (I can't exactly remember) transformed into a flying horse to rescue mortals trapped in a flood, and lifted them to the gates of Heaven.

Fans of the movie Tombraider will know that some scenes in the movies were shot at this temple.

When the Angkor area was discovered, Ta Prohm was left to its own devices to show the original state of the temples before restoration. The local trees, known as "spong" to the locals have roots that crawl all over the temples, holding together sections of the building whilst at the same time wrecking destruction by splitting open walls of the temple with the growing roots.

The spong tree itself is soft wood and only good for firewood. However, the strength of the roots wreck havoc on the sturdy sandstones by creeping into the nooks and cranny and forcing them bigger as the roots grow bigger.

Built during Javarman VII's reign, it is typical of the Bayon style of architecture.

There are so many different forms the roots take, so I've thrown them all into a travelogue.