The Best of Cambodia

Angkor Wat

Best time to travel: Jan-March, Nov-Dec
Walk difficulty: Moderate
Ease of travel: Moderate
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

Largest religious monument in the world, at 402 acres
Originally a Hindu temple, it gradually transformed into a Buddhist temple toward the end of the 12th century
Masterpiece of high classical style of Khmer architecture
Designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the devas in Hindu mythology

Best time to travel: Jan-March, Nov-Dec
Walk difficulty: Moderate
Ease of travel: Moderate
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

Modern name of the temple in Siem Reap, built in the Bayon style largely in the late 12th and early 13th centuries
It was founded by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and university
Unlike most Angkorian temples, Ta Prohm is in much the same condition in which it was found: the photogenic and atmospheric combination of trees growing out of the ruins and the jungle surroundings have made it one of Angkor’s most popular temples with visitors

Best time to travel: Jan-April, Nov-Dec
Walk difficulty: Easy
Ease of travel: Moderate
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

Richly decorated Khmer Buddhist temple at Angkor
Built in the late 12th or early 13th century as the state temple of the Mahayana Buddhist King Jayavarman VII
The Bayon’s most distinctive feature is the multitude of serene and smiling stone faces on the many towers which jut out from the upper terrace and cluster around its central peak
These faces have been associated with the Hindu God Brahma because of the four faces looking in different directions but archaeologists also associate it with Buddha despite the jewelry, crown marking which are not associated with Buddha
The temple has two sets of bas-reliefs, which present a combination of mythological, historical, and mundane scenes

Best time to travel: Jan, late Nov-Dec
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

Complex of buildings which serves as the royal residence of the King of Cambodia
The Cambodian monarchs have occupied it since it was built in the 1860s, with a period of absence when the country came into turmoil during and after the reign of the Khmer Rouge
The palace was constructed between 1866 and 1870, after King Norodom relocated the royal capital from Oudong to Phnom Penh

Best time to travel: Jan-Feb, Nov-Dec
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

Museum chronicling the Cambodian genocide, located in Phnom Penh, the site is a former secondary school which was used as Security Prison 21 by the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 until its fall in 1979
From 1976 to 1979, an estimated 20,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng and it was one of between 150 and 196 torture and execution centers established by the Khmer Rouge
In 2010, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia convicted the prison’s chief, Kang Kek Iew, for crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions

Best time to travel: Jan-March, Nov-Dec
Walk difficulty: Easy
Ease of travel: Moderate
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

Temple at Angkor, built in the 12th century for King Jayavarman VII to honor his father
It was the centre of a substantial organization, with almost 100,000 officials and servants
The temple is flat in design, with a basic plan of successive rectangular galleries around a Buddhist sanctuary complicated by Hindu satellite temples
Preah Khan has been left largely unrestored, with numerous trees and other vegetation growing among the ruins

Best time to travel: Jan-Feb, Nov-Dec
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

Buddhist temple (wat), and a pagoda, that symbolizes the name of Phnom Penh, a historical site in the record of Khmer national identity
The pagoda is named after Lady Penh from the story of the discovery of the five statues: one Vishnu statue and four Buddha statues
Completed in 1373