Forget the polished marble and the paintings of Italy.
Imagine instead that you are Indiana Jones.
You are exploring temples of rough stone blocks, carvings in the walls, soaring white trees digging their finger-like roots into the temple itself, creating jungles inside the walls. Or watch Tomb Raider. It was filmed here.
Imagine also that everything is unfinished, at its best. And crumbled by decades of war, at its worst. Many temples have piles and piles of stone pieces stretching out from the walls. There are restoration projects in place, funded by the French and the Japanese, among others.
Finally, temples are constructions of Buddhist and Hindu both. As Cambodia was Buddhist during the 12th century when the temples were built, that remains the primary focus. Check out Angkor Thom online and see some of the 216 faces of the Buddha. But check out pictures of the wall size carvings from Angkor Wat and you will find of the stories of the Ramayana.
They are certainly unique, and inspiring and beautiful. Probably why tourism has increased magnanimously since the 90s.
Suggest viewing: Tomb Raider - not for the quality of the film, people. Just the temples.
Two Brothers - filmed at Beng Mealea which still has the wooden platforms that were constructed for filming, so that tourists can walk above the temple floor
and look down.
I just watched the scene from Tomb Raider. Cool! (Again not so much the movie but the temples).
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