Lost City of Koh Ker with Beng Mealea Temple by Peace Of Angkor Tours

Tour Itinerary

We depart Siem Reap with a pick up from your hotel from 07:15

The drive to Koh Ker takes just over two hours driving via the small town of Damdek We continue northwards through pleasant country and villages to Beng Mealea Village, where we organize the temple passes (included) for Beng Mealea and Koh Ker.

It is a further 70kms on mainly tarmac roads to Koh Ker; where we arrive at approx 09:30. We drive clockwise circuit round the Koh Ker temples to take best advantage of the morning light.

The first temple, Prasat Pram (5 Towers) is among the most atmospheric. Two of the towers are picturesquely draped with tree roots, with the surrounding forest as

a lovely backdrop. Prasat Chin (Chinese temple) is in a picturesque state of ruin with its blackened laterite tower open to the sky. We visit the small reservoir of Andong Preng (Sacred well of Oil) and see the large Rahal reservoir which is usually dry. We finish the morning at the Prasat Thom area which contains a large moat, the 37m high Prasat Thom Pyramid and numerous 1000 year old brick temples and shrines.

We have lunch in the temple precincts and take the eastern part of the circuit which has some of the largest lingas in temple lingas in the Khmer Empire. The atmospheric temples of Prasat Krachap and Banteay Pichean are surrounded by forest. If you are lucky, you may see birds of prey like eagles, circling overhead.

We drive south to the Jungle temple of Beng Mealea.

Set behind huge walls, dripping with vegetation with huge trees growing out of the ruins; Beng Mealea is a place of sensational atmosphere. This temple was built 30 years before Angkor Wat. It is in a similar style and layout. Though lacking in carvings: nature provides the decoration in the form of lichen-covered walls and spectacular tree formations.

On this tour we have time to have an in depth exploration of this temple. We take an unusual route into this temple; to see parts of this ruin which most groups never see. New ramps and steps have made access easier; but some parts of this temple require some scrambling over tumbled blocks, and traversing high walls. We walk and down dark a passage reputedly to have been the home to a tiger (now long gone).

We leave at around 4 to 5pm and see some life in the small village of Beng Mealea with a good chance to see water buffalo or cattle in the Beng Mealea Moat, before arriving back into Siem Reap around 5 - 6pm