Cambodia, Part 4: Angkor temples

At the end of my Asian Adventures trip, I visited Siem Reap in Cambodia, which is the city near the famed Angkor temples.
The temples sprawl for hundreds of acres and I didn't see all of them, but did a nice tour with some friends from the hostel of the main temples. It was SUPER HOT and humid, so it's pretty intense to spend a lot of time sightseeing in the middle of the day.
The Angkor temples are the world's largest religious temples and were built during the Angkor Period from around 800-1431 AD. It's arguable about when/who "discovered" them, but many of the temples have been restored and the tourism industry around them drives a huge part of Cambodia's economy.
Here are two images of the entrance to one of the main areas. The first one is a common theme in Khmer architecture--many people holding up the body of the Naga (7-headed snake).
The first temple we visited was Angkor Thom, or the "one with the faces". There are an estimated 1,000 different temples in the region and they vary widely in architectural style and themes.

A closeup of one of the large faces embedded into the sides of this temple:
A photo of me and my great travel buddy, Shadine resting in the shade. It also illustrates the detail of etchings and bas-relief on every inch of every wall.....
I don't remember the name of the next temple we visited (I knew I should have written them down!) but I do remember it being called "the world's largest puzzle". Here's the walkway up to it:
And a close-up;
A small, minor structure in the jungle en route between larger temples;
My favorite temple we visited was "the one with the trees" or Ta Prohm. It has large trees and roots growing on/among the temples.

This next photo was in the Ta Prohm temple and I took it to capture the young girl who was selling souvenirs under the ancient ruins. I wonder if her parents were around--she couldn't have been more than 9 at the most.
Here's an interesting doorway

And me and another travel friend (Cyril) in another doorway laughing about something...the heat? I don't remember which temple this is either, but it had interesting animal/gargoyles;
Here's one structure the kings used to get on and off their elephants--the elephants stood next to the outcropping and the people would get on from the walkway.

An image of a sign that demonstrated the "before" and "after" of the restoration....most of these temples were piles of rubble when they were uncovered from the jungle.
And an example of some restoration in action--you can see the different colored concrete on the walkway edges. An example of the elaborate carvings and images on all the walls:
Some of the temples had writings and inscriptions on the walls instead of images:
Finally, we visited the "main" temple of Angkor Wat, said to the world's largest religious temple. Its silhouette is also depicted on the Cambodian flag.
Here's the shot as were entering from the backside;

Here's a shot of one of the inner courtyards;
A closeup of one of the towers:

And the view looking out from the temple:And an image of Angkor Wat as we were walking away from the front side. This place was absolutely huge and sprawling--you could walk around everywhere inside. I was there during the "low" season, so it was nice there were hardly any tourists around!

In addition to the great temples of Angkor, the trees within the temple area were marked botanically (yay!)You can also get an elephant ride around the grounds:

I'm really glad I got to see the Angkor temples. I highly recommend it if you're in the region! The accommodations are varied and inexpensive, and you can get a guide for reasonably cheap. We were promised our tuktuk driver was also a guide, but he didn't know any facts, just drove us around and pointed out the names of places we were. I think if I went back I would pay for some better history/stories/information.....