Ranking right up with the Pyramids of Giza, the Great Wall of China, and the Taj Mahal, the Temples at Angkor Wat in Cambodia are among the world’s great heritage sites. Ankor Wat wasn’t known to the Western world until the late eighteen-hundreds when a French explorer wrote about them in a best-selling book. But even then, very few Westerners had a chance to see them due to the political turmoil that dominated the region for the next hundred years.
It wasn’t until about twenty years ago when a previously closed Cambodia opened her borders to the rest of the world that more people had a chance to experience this ancient wonder.
The temple complex had been abandoned for several hundred years which allowed the jungle to encroach. The temples and their extensive carvings are pretty cool in and of themselves, but what gives the place an other-worldly feel is all the trees and their roots that have slowly engulfed big portions of the complex.
While preservationists have cleared away some of the trees, it would be impossible for them to clear away much more without doing further damage to the buildings. Even if they could, they shouldn’t. The melding of ancient civilization with irrepressible nature is what gives Angkor Wat its undeniable appeal.
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