As the sun breaks the horizon and paints the world in shades of pink and purple, the ruins before us are all at once illuminated by the first rays of morning. With the sun behind the ruins of Angkor Wat, we stand in the shadow of the ancient ruins at sunrise admiring them and their reflection in the pond at our feet. The sun climbs through the sky, bathing the millennium old ruins as it has done for the past thousand years, putting on a light show for tourists to rival any fireworks spectacular.
Originally built for King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city is the epitome of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. Over the years, the temple and ruins have been religious center previously for Hindus and now for Buddhists. In 1992, the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) dubbed Angkor Wat and the surrounding 400 square kilometers an official World Heritage Site.
Unfortunately, even though these ruins hold so much history and religious importance for so many people, they are little known for anything other than “those ruins Angelina Jolie was at in Tomb Raider”. Beyond Angkor’s cameo in Jolie’s movie, there’s much else to explore. The ruins are a thousand year old testament to architecture, unbelievably preserved and beautifully maintained. The ruins are so enduring at resilient that the Cambodian people have chosen it to represent their country on their flag.
It was nice to visit ruins where, unlike so many historical sites frequented by tourists the world over, you can actually walk the same halls, climb the same stairs, and sit before the same Buddhas of the temples’ original occupants. The World Heritage Site is over 400 sq km, and therein contains over 50 different temples. While some of these are no larger than a small hut, others, like Angkor Wat, stand at a towering 45 meters high. And while the majority is separated by no more than a few kilometers, some are as many as 15 to 20 kilometers away. While it is possible to see all the temples in a day, its better to spread it out over several days. Tickets are available in 1, 3, and 7 day packages, though they are not cheap (by Cambodian relative cost standards) at $20 US for one day. But, if you only have a day before you have to leave Cambodia, then feel free to use or agenda as a rough guideline for your trek through religious history:
First things first, there are a few ways to go about seeing the ruins. You can have a Tuk Tuk driver take you around for the day, at about $5 US a person, you can rent a bicycle, or you can hoof it. Given that it’s either hotter than the surface of the sun or raining harder than it did for Noah by mid day, we suggest the Tuk Tuk. Having left our guesthouse at 5 am, we arrived at Angkor Wat as the sun chased away the night and reveled the temples. From Angkor Wat, the central starting point, there are several routes you or your driver can take, including the Small and Grand Tour Circuits, or the
National Route.
Our driver opted to start with the Small Circuit, counter clockwise.
We didn’t realize it, but this was the best thing he could have done for us.
After the tourist hordes watch the sun kiss the ruins, they set out to see the rest of the temples, and the vast majority of them and their drivers head north to Angkor Thom.
Our driver headed east and started with Prasat Kravan, so for the bulk of our day, aside from a few stray dogs, cats, and monkeys, we were the only ones at the ruins.
From Kravan, we headed to Banteay Kdei where we bumped into some rebellious stray dogs defying the law.
Moving on, we stumbled across the famous temple from the
Tomb Raider movie, Ta Prohm, and then saw Ta Keo, and finally the second largest set of ruins, Angkor Thom, where we got to see the Elephant Terrace and wander the Terrace of the Leper King.
We finished seven hour tour of the ruins with a cruise around the Grand Tour Circuit, stopping to see more ruins held securely in the roots of trees at Ta Som.
After everything was said and done, the ruins were unbelievable. To think that this kind of architecture was possible 1000 years ago puts these ruins in the same category, for me, as the Pyramids or the Temples of Jerusalem and Massada. What magnifies the importance of these ruins even more is that every temple you come across still has offerings and incense burning before an active shrine.
