The Jungle Temple Ta Prohm - To the Ruins of Angkor Part 3 [ GX7 ]

This pile of crumbling blocks sits in front of the entrance to Ta Prohm, one of the larger and more mysterious of the huge city temples in Siem Reap. Today I will be talking about my journey here, part 3 of my journey to the Angkor ruins in Cambodia.




A woman gets her picture taken just outside one of the smaller tower temples inside the main complex.

Ta Prohm is notable for its size - the main temple complex is 820 x 720 feet in size, making just the temple itself 13.5 acres, the size of 10 football fields, and this is surrounded by outer walls over 3,200 feet long E-W and 2,100 feet N-S. It was built over the 12th to 13th centuries and was the center of a vast city and network of villages with almost a million inhabitants.




Ta Prohm is also notable especially for its current state of disrepair. Like Beng Mealea (that I mentioned in an earlier post), the people restoring Ta Prohm decided wisely to leave it much the way it was discovered, and work has been done, and continues to be done to make sure only that it doesn't collapse any further.




To get through this huge complex you have to go under, over and around all sorts of obstacles. With 100 degree weather and humidity so thick the act of wiping your hands off is enough work to build up a layer of sweat anew, it was tough going, but thanks to a friendly guide I was able to explore quite a bit of the ruins.




This image (above) is possibly my favorite picture I took the entire time in Cambodia, and really shows just how awesome and beautiful this temple is.




One of the standing chambers had a bunch of neat images carved into it. The path past here led literally up the side of the wall after going through a tight cave-like passage.




Just as we were about to get out of the cramped tunnel, the guide kindly enough pointed out this big spider waiting in the doorway. When I asked if it was poisonous, he said, "Oh, no, there's no poison... But don't let it touch you!" Um... Allright... Let's say I was careful going past this one.




Up on the roof of a chamber you get a nice view of the temple towers and trees growing in their midst.




It's not often that you get to go up onto ruins like this. It makes you feel like a real adventurer.

Speaking of which, and some people may have recognized it already, Ta Prohm is notable also as being the location where parts of Tomb Raider were filmed, or at least the inspiration for their set design. Climbing around the rocks, up on ledges and down into tunnels, you really did feel kind of like you were in a video game or movie. It's a truly incredible place.

Oh, and for the conspiracy theorists out there, Ta Prohm is also the location of a carving of what looks like a stegosaurus. I saw it, and yes it does look like someone made a dinosaur-carving over 800 years ago. What does this mean, if anything? I'm not sure.




I'll finish off here, with this final picture of one of the sub chambers in the last open courtyard I visited before I had to head out. It was boiling hot and humid, so in all honesty I don't think I saw as much of Ta Prohm as some of the other places I visited. And with how huge and confusing it is, I guess that shouldn't be a big surprise.

Climbing among the rubble and ruin, but still having so much of the place standing, it was truly an awe-inspiring visit, one I don't think I'll ever forget. The vast size and attention to detail are just mind-boggling, while also a reminder of just what people are capable of doing. And it's also a reminder that even great civilizations like this one can just vanish. There is something about wandering through abandoned chambers of a long lost society that has to make you pause.

For more information on this great temple, check out the good Wikipedia entry: Ta Prohm. Or to check out my first two posts in this series just go here: The Crumbling Walls of Beng Mealea or Mini Temple and Mountain. Or to see more of my pictures, check out my Flickr Photostream, which I'm happy to say now averages (thanks to you) several thousand views per day. Keep coming back, and if you like my posts please share them with your friends on Facebook or Twitter.

***

This set was all taken with the Panasonic GX7 using the wonderful wide-angle 14mm F2.5 lens.