Here’s another example of a 12th century temple. This one was originally a Hindu temple.
There was a lot of little plants growing all over this one.
This statue was pretty deteriorated, but still got a cloak and a water offering.
He kind of had a bunny face.
Some of the carving was still in good condition.
It was very quiet here.
Only an overheated Matthew walking around.
Tak Keo is a very big pyramid.
The main temple is the fifth level of the pyramid.
It is very high up, steep, and the step are very narrow.
The blocks of sandstone are quite large.
The blocks are so big Kerri walked up on hands and knees.
The view was worth it though.
The top was also in the shade. Very nice to take a break in.
Matt kept getting in the way of the empty temple shots.
That’s better.
There were lots of floral motifs around this one.
We aren’t sure if these are original repairs or more recent ones as there is some evidence of metal bars being used to anchor some bricks back together when the temples were re-occupied.
The guardians are all still smiling even in the heat of the day.
This is the tree temple. You may be able to guess why.
It is also known as a location for a movie.
A movie that I don’t think anyone really saw.
But everyone still lists it as the Tomb Raider temple. We much prefer tree temple since using a reference no one knows is really useless.
The carvings here where some of the best. Lots of animals everywhere.
Or people riding animals.
Okay maybe you need to tilt your head a bit to figure them out. Or just call them mythical beasts. Or that one stegosaurus that was wandering around Cambodia in the 12th century.
They have tried to minimize the restoration in order to preserve the trees growing in, around, and over all the walls and structures.
Not sure where the roots of this one actually go and how it started. Hopefully it is well supported otherwise if it comes down a large portion of the temple is going to come with it.
We managed to wander away from all the tourists as this temple can get very busy as it is one of the 3 major temples to visit.
Some of it is still in ruins which gave it a really cool look.
When parts fall away you can see the way they built the temples. They really had no idea what to do with stone. Most of the time it was just stacked without any overlay.
Sometimes we had to make our own path to explore the temples.
