See more in Angkor!
Many visitors traveling to Angkor expect to find untouched temple ruins amidst the jungles. The truth is, the jungle of Angkor measures only 8 km from north to south and 7 km from east to west and most of the temples such as Angkor Wat and facetower temple bayon and jungle temple Ta Prohm are frequented by busloads. They are the musts-sees indeed and they are still attractive and large enough to find an undisturbed place and less crowded at certain times. So don't miss to see the roughly two dozens temples that have car parks and are made accessible by two mahor routes, each of which requires a full day for all the visits along the road. We are talking about the Small Tour with Ta Prohm and the Grand Tour with Preah Khan.
However, along both circuit roads and only a few kilometers further west and further east, there are also dozens of andient temples that are usually left out by group tours. And they are the hidden gems that still allow you a true "lost temple in the jungle" feeling. Some of them will turn out to be on the shortlist of your all-time favourite travel destinations, we are sure about it. |
Ta Nei is in the centre of Angkor but nevertheless rarely visited
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Sure, we also recommend the famous places, there is a reason why so many travelers like them. For Sri Lanka's Top 20 highlights click here...
Top 20 Hidden Temples of Angkor - sorted by location
Siem Reap & WestBanteay Thom
Wat Athvear Wat Enkosei Prasat Prei Prasat Sampheau |
Small Circuit roadTa Nei
Prasat Chrung East Gate Mangalartha Hospital Chapel |
Grand Circuit roadBanteay Prei
Krol Ko West Prasat Tob |
East & RouluosPhnom Bok
Chau Srei Vibol Banteay Ampil Trapeang Phong Prasat Tor Prei Monti Toteung Thnga |
Top 20 less-known Attractions of AngkoR - as Our hitlist
We sorted by priority-preferences: Places of interest we consider to be more attractive appear higher-ranked in our top 20 list. Sure, every such list is somewhat arbitrary. But a debatable ranking is better than no grading of recommendations at all, isn't it?
1. Phnom Bok - the lonesome temple on a hilltop
Built by the founding king of Angkor, Yashovarman I (889-910), Phnom Bok is one of the oldest temples in Angkor. Yashovarman constructed three temples on three hills in the plains of Angkor, the central one, the large Bakheng, being dedicated to Shiva, whereas the other two, Phnom Krom near Lake Tonle Sap and Phnom Bok in the east of the Angkor area, had three Prasats each for venerating the Trimurti. Large statues of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva were enshrined in Phnom Bok, now on exhibitin in Musée Guimet in Paris. What's most fascinating for today's visitors, apart from the scenic location, is that the two adjoining library monuments are picturesquely crowned by trees, looking like twins. 600 steps lead to the top- Alternatively, you can take a serpentine jungle path.
2. Banteay Thom - medium-sized flat temple completely off the beaten path
Banteay Thom is a very charming temple complex with three towers in an inner courtyard surrounded by long vaulted galleries resembling tunnels, which in turn are surrounded by a seried of ponds and an outer laterite temple wall with an east gate made of sandstone. Banteay Thom is secluded and not easy to find and cannot be reached by Tuktuks or cars. That's why it's so lonesome. The temple has several carvings from the Bayon period, for example the torturing of a Bodhisattva, a theme only found in Khmer art. The three central Prasats have numerous figurative carvings, depict themes from Hindi mythology such as Vishnu on Garuda and Aniruddha imprisoned by ropes and the Buddhist "Great Departure", Prince Siddhartha leaving his family and his palace on his horse Kantaka.
3. Ta Nei - the smaller sister of jungle temple Ta Prohm
The reason why Ta Nei is still a wonderful temple hidden in the jungle is simply that it has no car park and is in 1.5 km distance from the road. But it can be reached via a dirt road. Ta Nei is definitely wort a detour, as it is not a small temple and has some remarkable decorations. This is one of the last temples constructed by Jayavarman VII and it seems to have been enlarged several times later on. The temple proper, measuring 55 m by 47 m, has a courtyard with two separate Prasat towers in an east-west axis, the eastern one had been the east gate, before the temple was extended eastwards. The western Prasat and the nearby north gate have the best-preserved pediment carvings, depicting uncommon themes. The entire temple court is framed by roofed corridors along the temple walls, with a large inscription in the northeast.
4. Chau Srei Vibhol - large temple complex with a hillock
Among those temples situated outside the core zone of the Archaeological Park, Chao Say Vibol is the vastest complex in the plains of Angkor. It has remained largely unrestored and this means it's still in ruins. Nevertheless, two groups of monuments are pretty quaint. The main temple is a courtyard with a central tower and library buildings on the very top of the natural hillock which is entirely comprised by the outer temple walls. The northern wall carries a strangler fig. At the southern slope is another closed complex with long vaulted rooms and two courtyards. It's called Kouk Temple or Prasat Klaeng. Its function is unknown and the layout is unique, as there is no Prasat within the courtyards. At the summit terrace of the hillock is a modern pagoda, a larger modern Buddhist temple is just north of the ancient exterior walls.
5. Banteay Prei - so close to highlight Preah Khan and still perfectly tranquil
Banteay Prei is not far from the so-called Grand Circle or Grand Circuit road and only 500 m north of the northeast corner of the famous Preah Khan. Surprisingly, it's almost never visited by foreign tourists, though it's a medium-sized temple with lots of decorations and in a good state of preservation. The complex is surrounded by a moat, which measures 110 m east-west and 85 m north-south. The temple proper is of the common design, with surrounding vaulted galleries and a courtyard and a central Prasat. Many Buddhist and Apsara sculptures can be seen at the gateways, most of them are defaced like those in Preah Khan and other temples from the same Bayon period. As the temple is rarely frequented by visitors, the temple land is often used as pasture for cattle of locals, agricultural land is just north of this temple.
6. Wat Athvear - large temple in town and nonetheless off the beaten path
Wat Athvear in the southern outskirts of Siem Reap is a medium-sized flat temple, all structures are on ground level. A large Prasat with Mandapa hall is surrounded by a courtyard with well-preserved walls and gatehouses and library buildings. An exterior gate is further west. The entire temple is oriented westwards, which in Khmer architecture usually indicates a sepulchral character. The purpose and the period of the temple are not precisely known. Usually it's attributed to the Angkor Wat period. In his case, it would be the only Angkorian temple from the first half of the 12th century that remained without sculptural decoration, though traces of first carvings can be seen in the Mandapa. Probably, the adornment was stopped and the temple remained uncompleted. A modern pagoda is just to the west of the ancient temple.
7. Prasat Chrung - corner temples of Angkor inviting to hike
The Khmer term "Chrung" means "corner". Actually, there are four Prasat Chrungs at the four corners of the city walls of Angkor Thom, hence in 3 km from one another. They can onle be reached by walking along the crowns of the city walls. All four Prasat Chrung are dedicated to Lokeshwara, all are similar, with a Prasat towers on a cruciform ground plan open to the east, the two on the eastern city wall with additional entrances to the west. The walls are decorated in the Bayon style. Pediments depict standing Bodhisattvas, many of them defaced in the mid 13th century. Of the four Prasat Chrungs, the southeastern corner temple is the best preserved one. All four Prasat Chrungs had steles with inscriptions, but only the southeastern temple has the Sanskrit preserved on all four sides of the slab, but it's not in situ any more.
8. Banteay Ampil - lonesome and overgrown
Prasat Banteay Ampil is a remote temple 8 km east to Chau Say Vibol, which is a hidden gem in itself. Prasat Banteay Ampil is even more lonesome and and partly overgrown, truly a jungle temple. It's not possible to reach this remote temple with a normal car or tuk tuk. A jeep is required or alternatively an ox cart of a local villager four-wheeler The structure is presumably from the Angkor Wat period like Chau Say Vibol. The exterior laterite wall of the temple is intact for a large part. The compound measures approximately 60m in length and 50 m in width. There are three gates to the east and south and west, but not to the north. Except from the uncommon south Gopura, the entire layoit of the temple is symmetrical. The two library buildings are facing west. All structures are built on sandstone foundations.
9. Krol Ko - open-air museum of Mahayana Buddhist art
Though situated close to the car park of Neaph Phean, Krol Ko seems to be too small to receive much attention. However, it is noteworthy for its Bayon style pediment carvings. The inner temple enclosure, made of laterite, measures 25 m in width and 35 m in length. The eastern entrance to the temple proper is a Gopuram, the roof now being collapsed. The principal temple is a Prasat with an Mandapa hall facing east. The highlight of Krol Ko are stone carvings of former pediments that were reconstructed on the ground recentky. Two of them on the right represent Lokesvhara on a lotus. To the left is Krishna raising the mountain called Govardhana, sheltering shepherds and their flocks from a thunderstorm. Interestingly, this is a typical Hindu subject in a Buddhist temple.
10. Wat Enkosei - Buddhist pagoda comprising a remarkable ancient Hindu temple
Wat Enkosei, also romanized An Kao Sai, is a modern pagoda in Siem Reap. The precincts of the Buddhist monastery contain ruins of an Khmer temple from the 10th century. Two of three Prasat towers have survived. The third one is replaced by a stupa. Only ruins remain from an eastern gateway. Surprisingly, the central Prasat is smaller in height than the southern one. Wat Enkosei has inscriptions that are an important source for historians. The pediment reliefs are worth noting, as they are probably the earliest Khmer depiction of two themes that later on became very popular in the 12th century, viz. Krishna lifting Mount Govardhana and the Churning of the Milk Ocean. The style of the illustrations found at the Prasats of Wat Enkosei are plain and simple, almost coming across like naïve art.
11. Trapeang Phong - oldest Apsara sculptures stay half the year on an island
Trapeang Phong is rarely visited. During the dry season an a few more weeks afterwards, it can only be reached by boat. The reason is that Trapeang Phong is situated on a mound in the floodplains of the Tonle Sap, it's an island as long as the water levels of the lake are high. A boat trip to Trapeang Phong is a dream coming true for travelers who like to explore a quaint and tranquil and typical area near Siem Reap. A Trapeang actually is a pond. Trapeang Phong is a Prasat, a Khmer temple tower, on a natural mound. There are indeed remnants of an ancient Trapeang found here. The single Prasat is much taller than usual. There are remarkable Devatas, sometimes called Apsaras though not dancing, at the outer walls of Trapeang Phong. They are the earliest known examples of this typical female sculptures in the plains of Angkor.
12. East Gate - the Angkor Thom face-tower gate hardly any tourist comes to see
Angkor Thom has five city gates, two of which are to the east. The Victory Gate is crossed by the road from Angkor Wat and Bayon Temple to Angkor Thom. But the East Gate, also knowns as Gate of Death, which is in the central axis of Angkor Thom, can not be reached without a little hike of 500 m one-way from the Victory Gate and therefore rarely sees any visitors. The East Gate measures 23 m in height, like all city gates of Angkor Thom, and the design is very similar, the central main tower has for gigantic Buddhist faces and each of the two smaller lateral towers has a single face directed towards the the city walls. The 7 m hight openings were originally furnished with double wooden doors. The causeway of the East Gate has not yet been resored. By the way, the West Gate, too, has remained to be off the beaten path.
13. Prasat Tor - forgotten temple towers near Banteay Samre
Prasat Tor is a small temple close to the eastern bank of the former East Baray, which had been the main reservoir of Angkor from the mid 9th to the mid 11th century at least. Toe reach the rarely visited Prasat Tor, you have to drive along the crown of the Baray's eastern embankment. From the junction at the northeaster corner of the embankment, where you a new shrine with ancient steles, you have to cross a stream to reach the temple premises. The path can be too muddy even in the dry season. Prasat Tor consists of two brick towers and a separate Mandapa hall that precedes the southern tower. The Prasat has a sandstone lintel depicting a god on a Kala demon mask. The lintel seems to be in style of Preah Ko, this means it's from the late 9th, contemporary to the Roluos temples and one of the oldest temples in Angkor.
14. Mangalartha - the last temple built of stone in Angkor
The Mangalartha temple, also known as "East Prasat Top" or "Monument 487", is named after the powerful priest Jaya-Mangalartha, who was the founder of this small temple. Though commissioned by the famous Buddhist ruler Jayavarman VII in the early 13th century, this private temple was not consecrated before 1295. This was shortly after a Hindu resurgence under Jayavarman VIII, who was related by marriage to Jaya-Mangalartha's family. THis rarely visited hidden gem is actually the last temple in Angkor, at least the last one that was not made of perishable material such as wood. The monument is a single sandstone sanctuary on a steep pyramidic base. Some restored pediment carvings are scattered on the ground in front of the monument, One of them depicting Vishnu reclining on the serpent Ananta Shesha.
15. Prasat Prei - tranquil temple with a wide moat
The name of Prasat Prei means "sanctuary in the jungle" and that's apt, as this is a completely untouristed temple in a peaceful surrounding far away from the circuit roads of Angkor. This Prasat Prei is located to the northwest of Angkor Thom, not to be confused with the Prasat Preijust to the north of Preah Khan. The more remote Prasat Prei is a typical temple in the Bayon style of the late 12th century. The major attraction of Prasat Prei is its location on a small natural hillock, which is surrounded by a surprisingly wide moat, which is dry most of the year. The small temple island has a laterite wall. The main tower and the adjacent Mandapa hall, which are both fully restored, carryhave some well-preserved Devatas or Apsaras on their outer walls and lintel carvings, too.
16. Prasat Sampeau - first Vahnigriha outside Angkor on the ancient road to Phimai
The shape of the hall in front of the temple tower resembles that of a ship, so the Prasat got its name, as "Sampeau" means "ship". The temple was built by jayavarman VII (1181 - ca. 1218) as was one of his 121 so-called "Vahnigrihas". The name of this type of architecture translates to "firehouse". They were erexted along the main roads of the ancient Khmer empire. On the way to Phimai in the north, Prasat Sampeau is the Vahnigriha next to Angkor Thom. Vahnigrihas were stations for travelers, marking the correct way and allowing to perform rituals and maybe even with wooden structures serving as resthouses. The average distance between two Vahnigrihas was around 16 kms, an easily managable daily walking distance. Prasat Sampeau is one of the very few Vahnagrihas with sculptural decoration.
17. Hospital Chapel - eastern one of four medical centers around Angkor Thom
The name of this small temple is not misleading, as the sandstone Prasat to the west of Ta Keo was once the chapel of a much larger complex of wooden halls, which indeed served as hospitals and accommodations for their doctors and nurses. Hospitals with small shrines were already in use prior to Jayavarman VII. However, it was under this famous King who established Mahayana Buddhism as the state religion that hospitals were built on a larger scale. An inscription found in this Hospital Chapel confirmed that it was of 102 hospitals attributed to this king. In particular, 4 such hospitals with chapels were constructed in all four cardinal directions of Angkor Thom, outside the city walls but close to the city gates. The other three are Ta Prohm Kel to the south, Prasat Ta Muon to the west, and Prasat Tonle Snguot to the north.
18. Prei Monti - three old towers in the south of Roluos
Prasat Prei Monti in Roluos is a group of three brick towers on a single platdorm, all of them facing east, as usual. The doors are made of sandstone. A lintel found on the ground seems to be older than the others of Roluos temples. They three Prasats were once part of a larger compound surrounded by a moat. It's likely that it was the sanctuary of a former royal palce, similar to the later and much more imposing Preah Ko. Because Khmer palaces were built of perishable materials such as wood and bamboo nothing has remained of those buildings. However, ceramics from the contemporary Chinese Tang dynastie were found within this former residential area. As foreign ceramics are a luxury good, they indicate the significance of a place. Prasat Prei Monti is ascribed to King Jayavarman III, of whom not much is known.
19. West Prasat Top - reconstructed stone by stone
This monument in the rarely visited western parts of Angkor Thom, listed as Monument 486, was a single tower on a laterite platform probably from the Khleang period in the late 10th century. But it was enlarged and embellished and transformed into a Buddhist sanctuary in the Bayon period of the late 12th century. After the Angkor period, the premises were still in use and a wooden pagoda for Theravada Buddhist rituals was added, of which nothing has remained than the terrace. The Angkor-period stone monument was in a dilapidated state till the late 20th century. It was restored only afterwards painstaikingly, making use of the anastylosis method with as many original stones as possiple brought back to their respective original positions.
20. Toteung Thngai - enigmatic ruins of trilithons only
This temple is the southernmost in Rouos, a little bit hidden in dense thicket. It's surrounded by a moat that is called a Trapeang here, though it is not a reservoir. The modern name "Toteung Thngai" translates to "broad sunshine". There is nothing left of the temple structures than only their doorframes. However, these are quite many, as the temple towers seem to have had more than one door and adjoined Manadapa halls with their own portals and the Prasats must have been numerous, as the temple compund is densely packed with trilithons. In their current state, they leave the impression of being megalithic buildings from prehistoric times. But they are not. It's only sandstone portals that have remained from former buidlings made of brick or even of perishable materials such as wood.
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