Ta Prohm, Our First Day in the Ancient City of Angkor

Cambodia, travel, Ta Prohm

The first place we visited was one of our favorites, Ta Prohm, also known as the "Tomb Raider" temple as in the movie with Angelina Jolie. Let me set the atmospherics with our own video:

Ta Prohm 

We walked through the forest to the one of the gates surrounding the complex. It was an opportunity to spot some of the wildlife.

Can you spot the parrots?

Bee Hives

Closeup

The gate

Ta Prohm is one of many temple complexes that made up the ancient city of Angkor. It was one of our favorites. It has been purposely "unpreserved," and gives you the feeling of discovery as you walk the grounds. The trees and vines have found purchase between the stones of the structure, slowly pushing apart what men put together, giving the place both a timeless and yet fragile atmosphere.

Angkor and its suburbs were over 400 square km, larger than New York City, and with an estimated population of over 750,000 it was the largest city of the pre-industrial world.

The stone works were carefully fitted together by mortise and tenon joints

If you could travel back in time and show the residents of the city a picture of their labors being pushed aside by nature, what would they think? What would you think if someone showed you a similar picture of your city? By the way, one of the reasons suggested for the city's eventual failure was climate change. Ponder that!

Will future visitors of the 'Ancient City of Los Angeles' wonder the same?

A civilization lost in time

Slowly disappearing

Lost in time.... Wait! What was this relief of a stegosaurus doing at Ta Prohm?