During my second trip to Cambodia, I had the rare opportunity to visit the Angkor Archaeological Park near Siem Reap with a UNESCO-trained guide and a driver all to myself for three days.

The south gate of Angkor Thom, the largest complex at Angkor, and the last capital of the Khmer empire

The Bayon temple at the center of Angkor Thom has 37 surviving towers, each with 4 smiling Buddha (or Jayavarman VII) faces

Closer view of the Bayon temple

Smiling Buddha/Jayavarman VII faces

It must have been a very happy place in the 12th century

Yet more smiling faces

Close up of a smiling face (for an interesting story regarding this photograph, see: My photo smiling back at me)

The famous Angkor Wat temple complex reflected in its 190 meter wide moat

Angkor Wat and a reflecting pool

Angkor Wat, meet Justin Watt

While Angkor Wat and the Bayon continue to be restored, Ta Prohm remains in a state of “photogenic reclamation” by the jungle

Incredible spung tree growing on the roof of Ta Prohm

The “knuckles” of the spung roots secure the tree to the temple

The spung roots seem amazingly adaptive and organic

Dead spung with a strangler fig (or banyan) growing around it

Posing between the giant spung roots to provide a sense of scale

Update, Feb 18, 2011: After returning to Angkor 8 years later (see: Return to Angkor, An afternoon with Angkor Wat, and The trees of Ta Prohm) I revisited this post and decided to improve the captions and correct the name of the trees growing on Ta Prohm (spung, though apparently there’s some debate). I also added the ability to enlarge the photos.

Note: These photos originally appeared in my photo galleries.

• The trees of Ta Prohm
• Return to Angkor
• Spring in Chapel Hill
• An afternoon with Angkor Wat
• North Carolina Ice Storm of 2002

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