Angkor Achelogical Area

There is nothing that can prepare you for this.

Entrance to Angkor Wat, after a rain shower

Sunrise over ???

I have never visited any of the other remarkable feats of early human construction achievement; Aztec and Inca in South America, early Egypt, Petra in Jordan or even the Roman or Greek architecture, so I have no real basis for comparison. The sheer scale of the building in the area is overwhelming.  I vividly remember approaching Angkor Wat from the Siem Reap in a tuk tuk, seeing what I believed to be a river and being told it was the moat around Angkor Wat ! Moat ? ! The thing is 187m wide and completely surrounds Angkor Wat itself.

We had hired a Tuk Tuk for the day, complete with driver for the princely sum of $15, he took us from site to site and advised what to see and when.  While this was one of the reasons I wanted to visit Cambodia, Toni had done most of the research investigating what to visit and when and then checking with the driver, I loved her for doing that, I was overwhelmed and unable to process  this magnificent example of human architectural achievement, leaving me mostly dazed and wondering how the mighty Khmer empire, like so many before it had fallen from such giddy heights to end up in the mid 1970's with the despotic Pol Pot led Khmer Rough  regime, from which there once mighty nation is still recovering.

We started at the South Gate of Angkor Thom, I was mesmerised by this edifice, thinking how grand, this is just a gate. 

South Gate, Angkor Thom

To the magnificence of the Bayon Temple within the "city" of  Angkor Thom

Bayon

Words truly do fail to do this complex justice, and I struggle with my photography to be able to similarly communicate it's grandeur.

 From the 10 sq km giant site of Angkor Thom, through the Terrace of the Elephants to the genuinely awe inspiring and largest temple on the Planet, Angkor Wat.  Everything you have ever heard, even as whispers about the place, do it justice.  You will need at minimum 2 days just for a brief tour, and that's all day, each day. Walking and climbing, then climbing and walking, I could spend a week there, let alone going to see some of the temples further away !

The temples are still used for worship and lots of Cambodians live and work around the temples.

The only downside of course is the incredible number of people wanting to view it all.  I struggle to justify the dichotomy of us being there wanting to enjoy some solitude vs everyone else of course wanting the same thing.

For anyone interested in history, this is a must see.

Here is a link to the rest of the photo's I have uploaded