An Ancient Wonder of the World

I have to admit to being "templed" out... I have seen the temples of Angkor plus numerous other temples of religion from Hindu to Buddhist, with regional variations inbetween... I'm not sure I could cope with more day trips to see more temples so I probably shan't! However, they were all worth it - they are all magnificent in their own way, but the Temples of Angkor are truely a wonder and truely, really rather ancient.

The intricately chiselled carvings are amazing in their complexity and the sheer number and size of them beggars belief and then even more so when you realise if was all really rather a long time ago and well over several centuries - absoultely outstanding craftmanship, patience and dedication must have been involved to achieve the temples they built and carved.

The Angkor Wat is the temple that everyone gets to see from their living rooms; huge, imposing and well restored it is the daddy of all temples! Others are marginally smaller in size but no less in design and intricacy - one of which has four columns of four buddha faces staring down at you - "big brother" (or should that be buddha?!) ancient style perhaps?? Others have imposing life-like rock carvings of great, ferocious looking creatures at each entrance way intent on intimidating you despite the fact they are not real... while others have been left for nature to consume with enormous tree roots spiralling down the side of crumbling ruins.

Apparently all the tourist activity of climbing up and down ancient temples is causing subsidence or something - basically the old buildings can't take the pressure anymore. Which isn't really surprising when you see the bus loads of rather well dressed looking tourists coming through. It also makes it hard to get a classic shot of the main temple without a gazillion other people in your photo. No easy answers to that one, since by being there myself I have contributed to the overall decline, but I at least stayed in a local run place not a super-duper place that sits uncomfortably next to local poverty.