Photos of Cambodia: Trees and Temples

This photo shows how the jungle is reclaiming some of the temples around Siem Reap, Cambodia.  The trees drop their roots on top of the temples, and they eventually envelope the ruins.

Many of the ancient Khmer temples in Cambodia have moats around them.  The moats are much wider than what you would likely think of as a moat around an European castle.  The bridges over the moats are often lined with statues, such as these.  Some of the statues have suffered their heads being cut off by robbers.

This photo shows the entrance to temple in the jungle.  Siem Reap has 400 temples in the vicinity.  Siem Reap translates as "Thailand defeated."  I suspect that might be a deterrent to tourists from Thailand coming to visit.  It does not seem to be a very neighborly name.

The temples are both simultaneously massive in scale and delicate in detail.  We asked our local guide about the tourism that has been booming in the short period of time since the devastating atrocities of the Khmer Rouge regime ended in the late 1990's.  He said that the largest number of tourists come from China, Korea and Japan, followed by the USA and Europe.

I mentioned above that the temples had intricately carved details.  This is an example.  It looks similar to some of the chariot scenes that you might expect to see on the carved ruins from the Roman civilization.