Timonator

Germany - 21-Aug-24 -

We have visited this big temple area in the forest on our way from Kompong Thom (base for Sambor Prei Kuk) to the BeTreed Adventures Eco Project. Actually the temple was a recommendation from Sharyn who runs BeTreed with her husband Ben for many years to stop along the way. We had to tell our private driver arranged by BeTreed to return as he had already passed the place. I only found out later that it´s a tentative WHS. I was only semi keen on visiting the temple at that moment of time as I had already seen quite a few of the Khmer WHS temples and was expecting similar.

Actually the experience was much better on site than expected. There were some guards hanging around and some local women were harvesting something from the bush. We were the only visitors. Only a small part of the big area of the temple that is marked by a rectangular moat can be easily visited. The access road leads to the entrance over the inner moat. From there it´s possible to pass through three building ruins until the jungle starts directly behind the third. According to the map the temple continues all the way through to a river, but we had only limited team and without machete and probably guide this was the area that was easy to visit. It was still a lot and we spend an hour in the ruins. Also along the paths between the main building remains there are smaller ruins and the atmosphere was unique as we were literally the only ones in these ruins in the forest. On the picture you see the first of the three main buildings being the entrance to the site for visitors today. Apparently there is another temple along the access street to visit that we missed. We had a closer look at the huge statue along the access road with 4 sides and 4 faces that appeared a lot like Lord Buddha.

The guards wanted 5 USD each from us but we agreed on 5 USD for 2 in the end as otherwise we would have skipped the visit not knowing that the temple has so much to offer. Our driver got 80 USD from us driving us to BeTreed and it cost another 90 USD for the 2 of us to get my 2 private transports first to Prahar Vihear town and afterwards to Sra`Aerm after the BeTreed stay from where we visited Prahar Vihear temple. I would like to recommand to visit BeTreed Adventures which is nice to combine with a visit to this temple and you can make a loop from Kompong Thom to Siem Reap and see all the WHS of Cambodia including this temple. BeTreed is a ecotourism project and community project where two foreigners with the support of local workers protect one of the few remaining pieces of forest in central Cambodia against hunters and loggers. There are nice jungle hikes, a great zipline and a cool treehouse to sleep in high above the ground. They have a good website with more info.

I´m neither good in Khmer architecture nor in UNESCO criteria for WHS but for me it looks like just another Khmer temple of which already many are inscribed. However due to its remoteness and also because it´s another lost palace in the jungle it´s fun to visit.

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