Abondoned temple from Khmer Empire 12th Century Cambodia

This is the inspiring tempe of Ta Prohm in the Northwest of Cambodia. After the fall of the Khmer Empire around 1430, the temple of Ta Prohm and many others were abandoned and neglected for centuries. This temple in particular seemed to become one with nature and the trees have become part of the temple today. When an effort was made to conserve and restore the temples in the Angkor region in recent times, the École française d'Extrême-Orient came to a decision to leave Ta Prohm as it had been found as much as possible. This has resulted in a beautiful and very natural looking reminder of the past. According to one Angkor scholar Maurice Glaize, Ta Prohm was singled out because it was "one of the most imposing temples and the one which had best merged with the jungle, but not yet to the point of becoming a part of it".

I visited here with my wife some years ago, and we spent 3 days travelling around the many temples in the Ankor Wat area in the north of Cambodia. Ta Prohn stood out for me the most, as it still looks very much the same as it did when it was rediscovered last century. There is something truly magical about the place, and I can picture the the monks and students milling about their busy days, long before the forest joined the alumni. It was it was founded by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and university in the late 12th century.

UNESCO rightly added Ta Prohm on the World Heritage List in 1992, and it is now a popular tourist attraction in Cambodia. It is great to see tourists flock to this part of the world, as the local people are truly inspiring, warm and welcoming. They have had a very sad and tragic recent history, but speaking to them and being in their presence, you would not think this was the case, as their warmth, laughter and openness are a real gift. I would encourage anyone who visits South East Asia to include Cambodia on their itinerary.

This last picture with me gives some idea of the scale of this overgrowth. It is amazing that these trees were the only ones who could appreciate these wonderful temples for centuries!

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This is my entry into @customnature contest for Abandoned Shit Weekly, and the theme of 'Overgrowth'

See the link below for full details:

https://steemit.com/aswcontest/@customnature/new-abandoned-shit-weekly-contest-5-overgrowth-40-sbd-aswcontest

The photos above are all my own and were taken with a Panasonic Lumix camera

For more interesting posts and my freewriting and fifty words visit https://steemit.com/@ablaze