Ta Prohm

This is one of the best, and while most people don't know it, the most famous of the Angkor temples. Most people know this temple from the movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, when Angelina Jolie plucks a flower from the roots of a tree at a "remote" Cambodian temple before falling into... some film studio. This temple is still (mostly) overgrown by the surrounding jungle. Although it has still been cut back, it gives you the feeling of discovering it for yourself.

It is one of the most recent temples, having been built in the 12th Century. Both the centre of the royal city of Rajavihara and a Buddhist temple and monastery, it was one of the largest monuments of the Khmer civilization. The temple is absolutely enormous. Most people approach from the west, although the traditional entrance is from the east (like pretty much every other temple). It is an absolute maze of ruins and is easy to become lost within its walls.

One can do nothing but be awestruck by its beauty and enormity. The overgrowing trees give it the sense that centuries have, in fact, passed by and the Khmer dynasty is a thing of the distant past. I, personally, have never felt so in touch with a piece of ancient history the way I did at Ta Prohm,