Cambodia 🇰🇭 Siam Reap ~Angkor Archeological Park Part 3 of 3”
Cambodia’s Angkor Archaeological Park is home to ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples that date back to the days of the Angkor Empire. The Temples in this region were condemned to being forgotten, as ancient Angkor was abandoned way back in ancient times.
However, curiosity drove archaeologists, conservators, and explorers to Angkor in the 1930s, where they uncovered a plethora of architectural treasures that would forever change the fortunes of the South-East Asian countries.
Phnom Bakheng Temple Ruins
was one of Angkor’s most popular destinations today. After much restoration work, archaeologists uncovered the origins of the Phnom Bakheng Temple and shared the ruins with the world. The Temple dates back to the days of the late 9th century, when the ancient kingdom of Angkor was ruled by King Yasovarman. The Temple was built under his rule and it was the most stunning architectural feat in the then-capital city of Yasodharapura; where Yasovarman moved to from another treasured site in Angkor, Roluos (previously known as Hariharalaya).
These were the ruins, we were told by our hotel staff, had the best sunset view. In fact, the ridge is known as Sunset Point.
If interested, this site takes some planning ahead, if you decide on doing the evening visit, as the site gets closed in the afternoon, in preparation for the mob of people, wanting to see the sunset.
The hike up took us over a half an hour. Definitely take water, and with little to no shade, once you get to the ruins, an umbrella would definitely have come in handy. After all was said and done, these ruins were the most underwhelming of them all. Ha! But we thought, with all the people, it must be spectacular for sunset, then! NOPE. Why there were so many people, for this, was a mystery to us. There was a long waiting line at the direct bottom of the ruins, as they only allow 300 people on the stairs at a time, which takes everybody up to the plateau. We almost gave up, while standing in line, as it was so hot. It had been a long day of exploring other ruin, and we had no umbrella. Somehow we managed to see our way to the top and waited for sunset. Luckily we had arranged for our Tuk Tuk driver to wait for us at the bottom, otherwise, with the masses of people looking for a ride, it would have been very late, before we got a turn. Would we do this visit the same way again? No. It really wasn’t that great. We would try going during the morning, and forget the evening mob.
To add to this story: After we got back to our hotel room, Daryl and I both discovered we thought the “other” REALLY wanted to stay for the sunset, when neither of us did. We got a good laugh out of that one!
*Click on the links below, to see all the photos for this blog post
Bakong Temple Ruins
was discovered in 1935. This Temple was the Temple built by King Indra of King Angkor in 881 (the capital of the country was then, in Rolous). The French Far East Institute’s monument maintenance expert, Maurice Grice, began to repair it in 1936.
Bakong is historically remarkable as it became a kind of prototype of the typical Khmer Temple pyramid, also called Temple-Mountain or step-pyramid. Bakong was the state, or imperial temple of its time, dedicated to the king’s Shiva-Lingam.
Jayavarman II in the early 9th century is considered to be the founder of the dawning Angkor empire, now called “Kambuja-Desa,” “Kambu’s descendants’ Land,” but Indravarman I; 877-889 is the first Khmer king of the now beginning Angkor era, whose achievements are documented beyond doubt, namely by his own inscriptions and by clearly attributed architectural masterpieces such as Bakong and Preah Ko.
The Bakong Temple at one time, was surrounded by an outer moat and enclosure of 2,952 foot in length, and 2,300 foot in width, but not conspicuously. Actually, not much is left of this original exterior wall and moat.
Random “Other” Temples and Statues in the Park
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Click on the links below to see Parts 1 and Part 2 of this three-part blog series on Angkor Archeological Park:
Cambodia 🇰🇭 Siam Reap ~Angkor Archeological Park
Part 1 of 3
Cambodia 🇰🇭 Siam Reap ~Angkor Archeological Park
Part 2 of 3
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About Us
Hello and Welcome to our Travel Blog Website, We enjoy writing about our experiences and taking photos of our adventuring along the way. Our names are: Daryl and Pen, but Daryl calls me “Bunny.” We met, quite randomly, whilst both… Read More