the very impressive temple of angkor wat is the reason most people visit cambodia. angkor was a vast city and the center of the huge khmer empire about 1000 years ago – indeed, with about 1 million inhabitants at the time, it was the largest pre-industrial city in the world. angkor wat really is unbelievably impressive.
the surrounding area is scattered with many other temples, which one can visit in a few different circuits. the most famous are ta prohm, which is being overgrown by massive tree roots, and bayom, the architecture of which evokes a sense of mysticism and has carved facades of faces of the gods.
toward the end of the day i found myself at a relatively simple temple called east mebon, which is flanked by stone elephants. this would undoubtedly be a world heritage site in its own right if it were anywhere else in the world, but because there are so many other more famous temple sunset views close by, i was there completely alone as the sun set:)
