mark prior photography

UNESCO World Heritage: Angkor Wat. A brief visit to the archeaological park.

A lot of people gathered on one side of the southern lake to watch the sunrise behind Angkor Wat
The rising sun makes the stonework of the temple glow.
One of the courtyards on the top of the temple is a nice place to relax before the sun rises too far.
High on the temple wall are these Apsara relief sculptures. One is lit by the rising sun while the other is still in shadow.
A view from the temple out to the west of Angkor Wat.
Two Apsara relief sculpture catching the morning light inside Angkor Wat.
On the grassed lawn area outside the north west side of the temple. The sun is rising behind the temple and is creating long shadows from the trees in the area,
People are sitting on the lawn near the southern library. In the background is the main temple complex.
Three monks have emerged from a doorway and stopped to have their photo taken while visiting Bayon temple.
The outer wall of the outer gallery features a series of bas-reliefs depicting historical events.
The temple is surrounded by forest but once you escape that you see a pyramid style temple, which means lots of steep stairs.
A narrow enclosed gallery part way up Baphuon Temple.
Looking past one of the towers and down the eastern walkway.
Gatecrashing a wedding shoot while visiting Ta Prohm Temple. The couple are in traditional Khmer dress with the man standing while the woman is sitting on piece of rubble (part of a pile that may be waiting on reconstruction work). A partially reconstructed gallery is in the background.
Buddha figures removed from pillars on path leading to the Preah Khan Temple
The moat as a moat has seen better days but it's a nice quiet waterway. Trees have fallen into it and any well defined banks are now gentle slopes into the water.
Very much a ruin in the jungle. Some of the site has been cleared but there is still plenty of work to do. Here is a corner of the building. Piles of rubble in the foreground and seen through some of the windows.
On the wall near the southern gate is a Garuda. Along the top of the wall are small alcoves that at one time held Buddha images but they were destroyed when Jayavarman VIII reverted to Hinduism.
Two Dvarapala stand guard on each side of the corridor.
The Jaytataka North Baray was filled with water lilies and lotuses. Here a single pink water lily is captured among some floating leaves.
A Mahayana Buddhist temple on a circular island in the middle of a pond on Neak Poan, which is an artificial island in the middle of Jaytataka North Baray.
At the corners of East Mebon temple stand some magnificent sandstone elephants. The only way to get a shot of the front of the elephant is to stand below it and look up which gives a sense of its regal nature.
Outside the temple walls looking through part of the collapsed wall at the temple inside.
An out of the way temple with beautiful carving. Come early and beat the crowds in this small temple.
Some of the beautiful, complex carvings at Banteay Srei temple.
The central part of the temple includes the shrine to the Hindu god Shiva.
A series of stone rock relief carvings in sandstone formations of the river bed.