The jungle temple of Beng Mealea

The Entrance to Beng Mealea

The place is literally located in the middle of the jungle. Trees not only grow around the temple, but also on the temple walls themselves.
In contrast to Angkor Wat where you'll notice how hot it is to walk outside the temple, in Beng Mealea, it is cool and shady.
The large and tall trees surrounding makes it feel secluded and tranquil.


To reach the main temple, we needed to walk about 10 minutes from the drop off point.




After a short nice walk, we saw the main building and the outer walls of Beng Mealea.
At this point, Beng Mealea looked just like an old temple, not adventurous enough.
Well, it turned out what we first saw was only the beginning of it. As we walk round the corner, the climbing began. And that's when the fun began!



At first we climbed the outer wall, and once at the top, we could see the inner courtyard of the main temple.
There were other visitors the ground level taking pictures of the center temple, which struck me with the realization of how each person can experience the same temple differently.
Looking at everything from high up, for example, made things looks slightly different, not to mention, fun!
After some quick picture taking, we took a walk on the wall. Luckily the wall was 'wide', so it was quite safe.
But fallen and displaced stones made it hard to choose which way to go, which was intriguing.
Here you need to be careful and alert, because a single mis-step could have dire consequences. Fortunately, the prospect of getting hurt really gave me the adrenaline rush and made it more exciting.
As we move deeper into the temple walls, we had to climb up...

...climb under...

...and through fallen pillars and structure.

By that point, I had made up my mind: this Angkor tour rocks! At what other place would you have your tour guide purposefully lead you through a path that looks 'dangerous'?
I had considered myself a pretty open and adventurous kind of person, but stepping on a pile of stones in a middle of an ancient temple, with no one around but ourselves, far from home and the city, got my heart beat faster. At times, I had to push away the fear in order to move to the next section of the temple.
We saw some Apsara figures on the wall and they have some pretty detailed carvings on the walls and doors, similar to those in Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom.

There is a wall where roots just completely engulfed them. It was amazing, a bizarre site to behold.
The tree stood firm on top of the wall, and the roots cling to the wall tightly, like a spider web.
I knocked on those roots to find out their texture, and hurt my knuckles.
They are dense.

Walking on Temple Rooftop!

Then came the scariest climb of them all. Sokha our guide didn't have problems choosing his path, nor did my brother. But I had stayed back to take pictures, and had to figure out the way myself since they have moved on.

I tried going through a safer pathway, but still ended up in a different place than them. At this point, we were climbing up to the roof of the temple. While they were already sitting and relaxing, I was still struggling to get to where they are.
I chose my path slowly, while in my mind I was thinking, "What if I fall, what if I slip, what if.. what if..". Because when you look down through the holed roof, you cant really see anything inside because its dark. You'd wonder what'll happen to you if you trip and fall inside there.
Would there be snakes?

Finally I reached the resting point, safely, and we spend some time there.
It was exhilarating to be at the roof top, about 2 stories high, with no fence to keep you from falling.
I thought about how I came to be there, it was so far removed from everything that I knew.
I was truly and utterly in a middle of the jungle, in a temple that is more than 1000 years old, climbing up and down the old stones, doing something that obviously almost no other tourists have done (no one was trailing us).

Going Back Down To Ground Level

After just enjoying being at the rooftop of this ancient Angkorian temple, we continued our way back down to the other end, and that was another episode of worry. There was no 'normal' way to get down, we had to step on window ledge, door frame and other fallen structures.
Again, if you have fear of heights, you will be severely tested here. Once we touched the solid earth again, I felt so relieved. Finally, the chance of hurting my own self has decreased tremendously.
We came upon this platform, which we were told was made for the Tomb Raider shooting.
You can see the newer one, which was made by the Apsara authority, and the old Tomb Raider one.
We met some kids who play around the temple. And what an extraordinary thing that is. To be kids and have the ancient Beng Mealea temple as your playground? What could be more fun? These kids walk around on walls and roofs, and move in such speed with no regards to the height and the state of the uneven ground.
We then went through this dark hallway, which was a rather spooky thing to do.
The hallway surprisingly didn't smell weird or bad. I suppose because it's well ventilated, due to the lovely window design. You will see windows like these in many Angkorian temples. These windows don't open or close, but just are openings in the wall.

Other Things We Saw

Then we saw a run down library, with the doors being reinforced, so it doesn't collapse.



And a large sarcophagus.

On our way back, we spent some time at one of the entrance causeways, where there's a naga statue that is still well preserved. 



We also saw an area where the land mines have been cleared, as shown by the sign.




On our walk back to the car, we saw an old man who was playing a Cambodian string instrument. It was such a sweet melody, a little bit Chinese sounding, but not quite. I regret not recording it because it really was a strange, but beautiful melody.


Beng Mealea is my favourite of all the accessible outlying temples. It  is a spectacular sight. To get the best out of it; agility and a head for heights will be

needed for some sections. There is a lot of climbing on walls and over huge piles of rubble; from the many parts which have collapsed. Only a small part of

this ruin can be seen without some degree of climbing. There are steps and ladders in a few places and to the south, access ramps built for the “Two Brothers” film gives easy access to the central sanctuary.
    We usually enter by a little used path which few visitors know about. It  is partially overgrown and mysterious. One can get a real sense of discovering a

real jungle temple this way. Scraps of stone and partially hidden naga balustrade line the route. The huge ruin is concealed from view until the spectacular

West tower and cruciform terrace appears. A giant buttressed sponge tree grows out of the upper level.


    We breach a collapsed gallery and enter the western enclosures which are thick with vegetation. Our route into the central area passes under a stone causeway and up tumbled blocks to a narrow passage with impressive root formations lining the walls.

    From the end of this passage a head for heights is needed. There is a lot of climbing and descending as we pass the two remaining concentric galleries to the central sanctuary and tower which forms a rocky hillock with a tree growing out of the summit. Some parts of the temple are so overgrown to be hard to reach and potentially hazardous so take care!

There are a number of different routes from here; but the most entertaining involves climbing through a window and up a pile of large blocks to a viewing platform then dropping down a ladder; over yet another high wall to a dark passage once reputed to be the home of a tigress I wondered whether the tiger story was a legend or fact until recently when a friend working at a hospital told me of a hunter in the jungle 30kms away was attacked by two tigers in July 2005. The man survived; but only after killing one of the attackers. Don’t worry there is no risk of seeing a tiger now as the last sighting of the tigress was over 10 years ago.
                  

A few Kms east of Beng Mealea is the little known mysterious temple of Kon Phluk. it is on the new road linking Bang Mealea with Preah Khan