The main reason Siem Reap is as popular as it is, is the presence of lots and lots of Temples. The most famous being Angkor Wat, the oldest and largest religious complex in the world covering 162.6 hectares, regarded as one of the 7 wonders of the world. It is certainly impressive, the staircases up the temple as incredibly steep with only tiny tread. They must have had very small feet or gone up sideways :-)
Angkor Wat started off as a Hindu temple then later kings changed it to Buddhist (which is when the statues arrived). It later went back to Hindu and some statues removed. The windows were stone and filled with stone decorated circular pillars. Most of the statues of Buddha have lost their heads. They survived for 1000 years until the 1990s when they were removed by the Khmer Rouge during and following the war between Cambodia and Vietnam. The primary reason for the decapitation was not religious but fiscal - the heads were worth a lot of money !!!
The grounds are filled with so many smaller temples and libraries holding the teachings of the faith(s). Kings started new temples, then when they died, building stopped and the next ruler started a new one.
The holes in the stones are where sticks were inserted to facilitate moving them, some of them being several metres long. The stones were laid and the temples built before the stones were carved and decorated !!!
Angor Thom, I preferred as the carvings were depictions of life as opposed to religious belief at Angkor Wat. Everywhere on all temples were carvings of the Aspara, Hindu seductive, dancing girls - over 1800 at Angkor Wat alone. Angkor Thom’s All had (original) four Buddha heads in various states of happiness ie some were smiling.
The last Temple we visited was Ta Prohm a Buddhist temple built in the late 12th, early 13th Century. Like all the temples in the area, they stopped being used a long time ago and became overgrown and lost to sight. Angkor Wat survived relatively intact due to it’s incredibly strong foundations. This temple is famous for the Banyan and Kapok trees which have taken root and grown in the very structure of the building. It was famously used in the film ‘Lara Croft - Tomb Raider’ as were the other Temples visited. The most photographed bit being the Lara Croft scene where the tree roots cover the entrance door.
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