This spectacular temple is about 60 km from Siem Reap. I didn't really consider the guide book serious when it described this temple as a real "Indiana Jones Experience" but it turned out to be no exaggeration. We found ourselves on ledges not more than 18" wide, and at least 3 stories high. I think I said "this is crazy!" and "this is amazing!" 50 times during our exploration. Looking back on it, we should have at least had a film crew there to film as actually doing this crazy stunt. No one was going to believe it. We walked through dark chambers and hung onto the jungle vines as we ascended the tumbled rocks one foothold at a time. If we were lucky, we were able to walk a straight line for 3 meters on the top of the wall (the original wood roof has long since rotted away.) While Ta Prohm, "tomb raider temple", will give you a similar feel of a temple swallowed by the jungle, it is much easier to walk around its cleared ground and wooden walkways. Ta Prohm is incredibly popular and therefore extremely crowded, but Beng Melea only had a few people visiting and we were definitely the only adventurous ones climbing the walls and jungle vines. In the photo you can see the common motif of the carved mini-pillars which was popular in many of the Angkor temples. The trees and jungle vine-roots did most of the destruction to this temple over several centuries.
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