Sunday, January 29, 2012

Prasat Kravan, Cambodia


True of most tourists to Cambodia, our main destination within the country was found just outside the town of Siem Reap the temples of Angkor. Due to the sheer numbers and spread-out locations of some of the many Buddhist and Hindu sites ranging from the reign of King Jayavarman II (802-850AD) to the mid 1200's, visitors focus on a certain number, depending on their length of stay and temple "stamina." 
The first site we visit was known as Prasat Kravan. Built for Hindu worship in 921AD, the five brick towers had some particularly nice bas-relief carvings inside the central tower of the god Vishnu.

Adding to the destruction wreaked upon the temples by jungle nature and centuries of abandonment, the temples suffered further destruction in Civil War. The Khmer Rouge took statues from the sites and sold them to other countries.

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