We left the hotel very early to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat. We arrived in the dark and walked, along with several hundred other people, to see the sun rise over Angkor Wat, which is a Buddhist-Hindu temple in Siem Reap. The sunrise over the temple was beautiful. There are hundreds of temples within the Angkor Archaeological Park’s 400 square kilometers. We saw 4 during our day there, Angkor Wat, Bayon, Neak Poan and Ta Prohm. The temples were each remarkably unique.

Angkor Wat is the world’s largest religious monument. It was originally built as a Hindu temple, designed to represent the mythical home of the Hindu gods. After the death of King Suryavarman II, the man who had it built, it eventually was taken over by other groups and was turned into a Buddhist temple. During the Khmer Rouge regime and the civil war, the temple was looted and most of the statues inside were destroyed or damaged. There are portions of the temple itself that were hit by American bombs during the Vietnam war, and bullet holes are still seen from the fighting between the Vietnamese and the Khmer Rouge. There are many buildings within the perimeter of Angkor Wat, several libraries and some buildings thought to be places for meditation and prayer. The stairs leading to the top of the temple are extremely steep. New stairs were constructed over the temple steps, since it would be nearly impossible to get to the top otherwise. Along the walls of Angkor Wat there are many designs carved into the wall. We can see where some very famous designers got their logos from!

Bayon temple is an interesting one, as there are smiling faces carved onto the 37 towers of the temple. There are over 200 smiling faces carved into the walls at the temple. There are many carvings on the walls that show daily life. It would be really easy to just walk by and not notice the details. I am thankful that we had a tour guide to show us some of the more unusual carvings. There is one that shows a man being bit on the butt by a turtle! The guide said it was karma since the turtle was supposed to be the man’s dinner. The scenes showed fishing, parents caring for their children, and military style troop movements.

Neak Poan temple is on an artificial circular island, with lotus blooms covering the water surrounding the island. It was absolutely beautiful. The trees surrounding the temple provided much needed shade on a warm day. People would come to this temple for healing as there are four pools within the temple, each pool representing a different element, wind, fire water and earth.

Ta Prohm is a temple that people like to call “Tomb Raider”, since portions of the Angelina Jolie movie, Tomb Raider, were filmed there. The temple is super unique as portions of the temple are being held up by vast root systems of very tall trees. There are reliefs etched into the walls of the temple, one of them being a dinosaur! Our tour guide said that the ancients found a dinosaur fossil there and that is why they added it to the wall.