Siem Reap Travel Guide

Beng Mealea

For those visitors especially charmed by Tah Prom's jungle clad stones within the Angkor Wat complex, it is well worth making the five hour round trip to visit Beng Mealea, a little-visited sandstone temple, now fused with the surrounding jungle. Built in the 12th century, and long since abandoned, this sprawling temple complex is as on a similar scale to Angkor Wat, and closely approximates what the first western visitors there must have experienced when stumbling upon these forgotten wonders. Many of the carvings have been desecrated by earlier souvenir hunters, but in other ways the mystery and quality of the structure has remained intact due to the small number of visitors.