Travels Through Cambodia: Angkor What?
Lisa Lubin traveled through Cambodia with many cities as: Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Angkor Wat and she had exciting experience.Phnomh Penh was a hot city with the same Southeast Asian mix of tuk tuk and motorbike drivers competing for my rear end. The city has come a long way since Pol Pot and had a lovely riverfront lined with many European alfresco cafes where you could sit under a refreshing fan and sip an iced latte.
But the primary tourist stop on most travelers’ agendas in Cambodia is Siem Reap, home to some of the world’s most amazing and best preserved temples some that are nearly one thousand years old.
The granddaddy of them all is Angkor Wat (Wat means temple). Angkor Wat was a temple built for King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. It is the only temple here to have remained a significant religious center — first Hindu, then Buddhist — since its foundation. The temple has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country’s prime attraction for visitors.
Although Angkor Wat was breathtaking and obviously grand, my favorite temple was Ta Prohm. The Ta Prohm temple is the only one where the forest and trees are being allowed to grow freely in and around the structure. Snarly roots wind around stone pillars and doorways adding to the beauty and eerie ‘ancient-ness’ of it all.
The site was home to more than 12,500 people (including 18 high priests and 615 dancers), with 80,000 in surrounding villages helping to supply the institution. After the fall of the Khmer empire, the temple fell into neglect for centuries. When the effort to conserve and restore the temples of Angkor began in the early 20th century, Ta Prohm was chosen to be left largely as it was found.
You may recognize the temple by it’s new nickname–the ‘Angelina Jolie Temple’ thanks to her not so Oscar-worthy film, “Tomb Raider.” Parts of the movie were shot around this temple in the jungle where nature and man mix together in beautiful harmony. Incidentally, Angelina has since adopted a child (cute and often Mohawk-haired, Maddux) from Siem Reap.
Source: Britannica
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