Wolfgang's photos with the keyword: Ta Prohm

Everywhere the big trees and plants have overpowered sandstone built walls and structures. The nature has a dual role of destroyer and consoler; strangling on the one hand, and healing on the other; no sooner splitting the carved stones asunder than she dresses their wounds with cool, velvety mosses, and binds them with her most delicate tendrils; a conflict of moods so contradictory and feminine as to prove once more if proof were needed how well "Dame". Nature merits her feminine title.

This temple area consists of several various temples. The further into the area you came, the less had been done, and we could almost feel how the persons who discovered the area have seen it.

The temple was originally constructed as a Buddhist monastery and was enormously wealthy in its time, boasting of control over 3000 villages, thousands of support staff and vast stores of jewels and gold. Of the monastic complex style temples, Ta Prohm is a superior example and should be included in almost any temple itinerary.

Tetrameles nudiflora is a species of plant in the Tetramelaceae family. Its also overpower the walls in Ta Prohm since hundred of years.

A display outside the temple inner court shows pictures of the culture treasure before and after the renovation.

Needless to say, the war caused great damage to the ancient capital of Angkor. The ambitious king set about making it into a proper seat of power by ordering the reconstruction of a number of temples. Ta Prohm was the centerpiece of his masterplan, located roughly in the center of the capital. Here was fixed a pedestal for tourists getting shot (by a photo camera).

Ta Prohm is extensively ruined, but you can still explore numerous towers, close courtyards and narrow corridors, discovering hidden gems of stone reliefs beneath the encroaching foliage. Many of the corridors are impassible, thanks to the jumbled piles of carved stone blocks that clog their interiors.

An interesting point inside the temple complex. Most tourists are overlooking due the camouflage of the roots.

There are 39 towers at Ta Prohm, which are connected by numerous galleries. Visitors are no longer permitted to climb onto the crumbling galleries, due to the potential damage to both temple and visitor.

Sadly, Ta Prohm was looted quite heavily in recent years due to its relative isolation, and many of its ancient stone reliquaries have been lost. The temple premise is extensively ruined, but you can still explore numerous towers, close courtyards and narrow corridors, discovering hidden gems of stone reliefs beneath the encroaching foliage. Many of the corridors are impassible, thanks to the jumbled piles of carved stone blocks that clog their interiors.

Local children often duck the security into Ta Prohm (an easier feat here than at other temples) and offer to buy souvenirs or to guide you through the temple. In my experience the reason why young kids see the opportunity for a better income at tourist places: most visitors poor the kids and they are generously in spending out too much their money for unnecessary twaddels. "Throwing around dollar bills is not such a good idea, as it breeds expectancy and contempt."

Some as wide as an oak tree, the vines at Ta Prohm cleave massive stones in two and spill over the top of temple ramparts. The effect is striking, especially at the strangulating root formation on the inside of the easternmost gopura (entrance pavilion).

Interestingly, the temple was also the headquarters of a vast hospital network created by the good king. From Ta Prohm, supplies filtered out to 102 hospitals located throughout the empire. The Khmer kings seem to have taken the Buddha's call to mercy into their own hands.

Of similar design to the later Jayavarman VII temples, this sprawling monastic complex is only partially cleared of jungle overgrowth. Intentionally left partially unrestored, massive fig and silk-cotton trees grow from the towers and corridors offering some of the best ‘tree-in-temple’ photo opportunities at Angkor. Flocks of noisy parrots flit from tree to tree adding to the jungle atmosphere.

Some areas of the temple are impassable and others are accessible only by narrow dark passages. It's needful to follow the plan with a route and landmarks indicted.