Epic Travel → Asia & the South Pacific → Cambodia → Beng Mealea

  ♦ Intrepid Top Pick!

Location: Near Kulen National Park, Northern Cambodia

Time Required: 4 hours (including travel time from Siem Reap)

Red Tape/Notes: $5 to visit, plus what it costs you to travel the ~70 km from Siem Reap

What’s Nearby?: Prasat Thom, Angkor Wat

Beng Mealea is a wonderful complex, with a fabulous Indiana Jones sort of feel to it. It’s largely unrestored, with trees and thick brush amidst the ruins, and plenty of roots growing over the stones and walls. It’s located about midway between the Siem Reap/Angkor Wat area and Koh Ker, near Kulen National Park. The history of the temple is unknown, which is fascinating considering it’s one of the Khmer empire’s larger complexes, but it’s thought to have been built in the early 12th century, since it’s in the same style as Angkor Wat. I personally enjoy the theory that it was a prototype for Angkor Wat (as opposed to a later copy). It was the center of a town and enclosed by a massive moat, and has lovely causeways with long balustrades formed by bodies of the seven-headed Naga serpent. Although the central sanctuary is now collapsed, much is left of the three enclosing galleries, and there are fairly well preserved libraries on either side of the avenue leading in from the east.

Epic Travel → Asia & the South Pacific → Cambodia → Beng Mealea