The Temples at Angkor, by Donna

We awoke early today for breakfast at 6am and a 6:30am departure to the temples, to avoid both the heat of the sun and the crowds.  This turned out to be a great strategy, and our guides were very adept at finding places where there were very few other tourists.

I would list the names of the temples we saw, but I’m not sure I could do that, and it wouldn't mean anything to you anyway.  Let me simply say that this temple complex is one of the amazing wonders of the world.  Built roughly between 800 and 1300, it covers an enormous area -- hundreds of square miles -- that was the capital of the giant Khmer empire.  Each subsequent sovereign seemed to want to outdo the previous ones in building the most elaborate and magnificent temple. 

There is no way to convey the scale of this site.  You see temple complex after temple complex, and pass dozens of others on the road that you don't stop to see.  You travel by "tuk tuk" for kilometers between each one.  In each, nearly every square inch of the buildings is covered with carving, much of it quite delicate and beautiful.  There are figures, animals and ornamentation on every surface.  There are piles of rocks evereywhere that have tumbled from the temples.  Some temples have been partially reconstructed, others not.  There was once a million people living in this area, and one can imagine most of them being put to work building these sites, whether schlepping the stone from the quarries, building, or decorating. 

It's amazing that you are given pretty nearly total access to the site and can climb to wherever you dare.  You can see and touch the sculptures up close.

One of the really dramatic parts of the scene is how the trees overtook the temples.  Since they were abandoned to the jungle for about 400 years, it took many years of clearing starting in about 1900 to be able to expose the temples.  They left the most dramatic trees and their roots to see how the temples looked in their overgrown state. 

This site ranks high up with the other amazing creations by human beings that we have seen through the years, including the Taj Mahal, the Moai of Easter Island, and the pyramids of Giza.

-- Donna

PS: Remember, you can click on the photos to get larger versions.