Neak Pean | Stowaway Travel Writing & Editorial Services

Pre Rup

Pre Rup

Banteay Srei

This temple is called the “lady temple” because it’s shorter than the other temples, lady-sized. No one seems to be sure why it was built on such a small scale. It’s built of red sandstone, rather than the mix of sandstone, laterite, and brick used in some of the other temples. It’s also covered in beautiful decorative carvings, and because the buildings are only a little taller than eye level, it’s easy to admire the art.

On the approach, you can see how the temple is so much smaller than the other temples.

Banteay Srei

Most of the statues in the park are copies because the originals kept losing their heads to vandals.

Gorgeous detail in Banteay Srei

Also monkeys

Such cool detail

Being demure in the lady temple

Banteay Samré

More than other temples I visited, Banteay Samré seemed like it was missing water. Everything was raised off the ground–the outer walls, the inner libraries, the inner temple–and since it was all closer together than Angkor Wat or similar, I got the feeling that there should have been water filling in all the empty spots. Like a floating temple. This was just what I wanted, though, and probably isn’t at all what it would have looked like in the 12th century.