Temples of Angkor

We would be remiss were we not to document our stay in Siem Reap, Cambodia. We spent three of our six incredible days there touring the amazing temples of Angkor. There are more temples in this general area than one can imagine, the earliest having been built in about the year 1000 and the last some 400 years later, all by kings of the Khmer empire, the most famous and revered being Jayavarman VII, whom the Cambodians simply refer to as Seven. The temples are a mixture of Hindu and Buddhist stemming from the religious influences of India into Cambodia at the time Cambodia rested in the middle of the silk trade routes. It was fascinating to view the intricately carved sandstone and marvel at the immense feat of engineering, architecture and artistry. The people used a combination of huge sandstone, brick they had made, and a very porous but hard stone for the structural parts. The stone carving in the sandstone is simply glorious. We found ourselves comparing the stone works of the Incas at Machu Picchu and the Japanese at a shogun castle in Kyoto. The massive stones these people moved are just incredible. Of course, at Angkor, there were elephants to do some of the hauling. These stones almost speak directly to you, reaching back through history to flood your imagination to a different time and different culture.

Some of our favorite temples were of course, Angkor Wat, but also the Bayon Temple with its many, many faces, and Ta Prohm, the one temple that has been left more or less as it was rediscovered, with huge trees climbing on top of walls and buildings. This is the temple where film footage was used in movies like Indiana Jones. It is spectacular and a stroke of genius on the part of the archeologists to leave it mostly as is.

As we have experienced throughout our trip while touring religious sites and buildings, from the churches of South America to the temples and shrines of Japan, Cambodia and Thailand, the children have continued to absorb the essence of these places with such open hearts. We hope our pictures will capture a bit of that same essence for you, too.