Baphuon - A huge & multi-story Temple with unique architecture around UNESCO World Heritage site of Angkor Wat and close to the famous wat Bayon in Siem Reap, Cambodia
When in Siem Reap city of Cambodia, one certainly goes to Angkor Wat which is a huge complex of temples around a dense forest. And when it comes to exploring these temples in Kher style, some of the popular ones are The Bayon, Ta Prohm, Angkor Thom and main temple of Angkor Wat. But there are so many other temples which offer stunning examples of khmer architecture along with great story telling through carvings on them. This UNESCO World Heritage site has so much to offer to visitors and Baphuon is one of those temples which may not be that popular but super impressive with unique design and size. This blogpost is an attempt to ensure that people from Travellingcarema community don't miss this temple when visiting Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
Baphuon Temple in Siem Reap is at walkable distance from The Bayon temple of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia. When we bought one day ticket for Angkor Wat, they give you a map with tickets and that map has all temples on it and give good sense about the location & how to reach these temples. Many of them are in clusters, which means you can simply walk from one temple to another and then more to another cluster in your tuktuk/taxi/bus.
There are 3 kinds of tickets available for travelers coming to explore Angkor Wat in Siem Reap -
1 Day ticket - $37
3 Days ticket - $62
7 Days ticket - $72
Some of the main ways to commute within Angkor Wat at -
Tuk-tuk,
cycles on rent,
Taxi (people prefer Tuk-tuk over taxies in Cambodia),
Tour vans/buses.
We hired a tuk-tuk for the day and our hotel 'Chateau D'Angkor la Residence' arranged it for us by charging $15. Usually they tell you in advance about the things they would take you to. How much time you spend at each place is on your wish, so Tuk-Tuk is with you but you have almost fixed itinerary. As we had planned for Siem Reap, we spent one day at Angkor World Heritage site and explore the main temple of Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, Angkor Thom, Bayon, Ba Puan, Elephant Terrace, Phimphimeanakas & some structures on our way.
Just look at above photograph, which shows multi storey Baphuon temple in Siem Reap of Cambodia. Now pay attention to the people walking on it's first level which approx 30-40 feet high. Direct sun was hitting the temple when we were walking around. So we didn't go up there and rather walked around the temple in the shade of trees around Baphuon temple. Also notice the steep stairs which allow you to go up till top of the temples. There are guards near these stairs to ensure limited number of people are walking up any point of time. Which also means that if there are more people inside the temple, the security guard may ask you to wait. The waiting time depends upon the overall inflow of tourists and it can be as much as 45 minutes. We didn't go up but it seems it's worth to go up and enjoy some of the panoramic views of other temples around Baphuon and the dense forest.
In one day tour, you can easily explore the main temple of Angkor Wat, the beautiful Bayon temple with plenty of faces of Budha, Ta Prohm which is another beautiful temple in this heritage site and India is helping in restoring this one and some of the other architectural sites which come on the way. With all this you get a good sense about the space where this heritage site is located and most of the other sites would be similar in terms of architecture. During the day you also roam on the roads within heritage sites and that exposes you to some local plantation and water bodies inside the heritage compound.
Above photograph shows the first gate close to the road which leads to the Baphuon temple.
The second enclosure of Baphuon temple has four entrance gopuras that are decorated with several depictions from Hindu mythology, including scenes from the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata along with flower patterns, animals, warriors fighting battles and devata figures.
Angkor Wat is a cluster of Hundreds of temples spread over a huge piece of land surrounded by dense forests of Siem Reap in Cambodia. When you start reading about Angkor Wat on internet, it's overwhelming and at times, it's hard to relate to the scale we are talking about.
There is this beautiful walkway, which you can see in above photograph. This walkway from the Eastern gate leads to the third enclosure of Baphuon which has an entrance gates on all four sides.
Baphuon Temple in Angkor Wat is a three-tiered temple mountain which is built as the state temple of Udayadityavarman II. Baphuon Temple is dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva. Baphuon temple had largely collapsed over the centuries and restoration efforts took great amount of time to attain the quality.
Sometime in late 15th century, the Baphuon temple was converted to a Buddhist temple. There is a 9 meters tall & 70 meters long statue of a reclining Buddha, which was built on second level. The temple was built on land filled with sand, and due to its immense size the site was unstable throughout its history. Large portions had probably already collapsed by the time the Buddha was added.
Some handy tips for Angkor Wat visitors -
# Queue for getting ticket for single day at Angkor Wat Heritage site is relatively smaller than buying ticket for multiple days
# At Angkor Heritage site, you don’t need to buy ticket for kids under 12 years but please carry a copy of the kid's passport to present date of birth on the counter and other places inside the Angkor Heritage Site.
# Around Angkor heritage places you would find lot of hawkers. Stay away from the hawkers selling stuff outside the entry gates of these architectural marvels, if you don’t intend to buy anything. Anyway you can find everything in Night market.
# There are enough places to have lunch or enjoy snacks.
# Keep your body hydrated while walking around the Angkor Heritage Site.
# Good walking shoes is must. (expect to walk a lot on the day you visit Angkor Wat)
# Starting the day as early as possible can help you a lot at Angkor Heritage site. As sun goes up, you get more exhausted.
If you liked this post and found it helpful, I would request you to follow these things when traveling -
- Manage your waste well and don’t litter
- Use dustbins. Tell us if you went to a place and found it hard to locate a dustbin.
- Avoid bottle waters in hills. Usually you get clean water in hills and water bottles create lot of mess in our ecosystem.
- Say big no to plastic and avoid those unhealthy snacks packed in plastic bags. Rather buy fruits.
- Don't play loud blaring music in forests of jungle camps. You are a guest in that ecosystem and disturbing the locals (humans and animals) is not polite
.jpg)