Beng Mealea

Beng Mealea is what Angkor might look like if no one had ever cleared it. Built in the early twelfth century, in the reign of Suryavarman II and in the same style as Angkor Wat, it was a temple on a grand scale: an outer gallery of about 181 by 152 metres, set in a moat more than a kilometre long and 45 metres wide. Yet it has never been rebuilt or tidied. The central sanctuary has collapsed, galleries have fallen in on themselves, and trees grow out of the roofs, their roots splitting the stone and holding it together at the same time.

That state of ruin is precisely what makes it so beautiful. Inside the moat lies a landscape of fallen sandstone blocks heaped in great mounds, half-buried doorways, carved lintels lying where they dropped and long vaulted corridors still intact beside others that have vanished entirely. Moss and lichen colour the stone green and grey, and the light filters down through the canopy in patches. A wooden walkway, around 250 metres long, carries visitors over the rubble through the heart of the temple, so that one sees the plan from above, crossing courtyards and looking down into galleries choked with stones.

The temple's position explains much of its importance. It stands only about 7 km from the sandstone quarries of Phnom Kulen, which supplied stone for Angkor itself, and blocks are thought to have been moved along artificial canals. It also lay on an ancient royal road running east from Angkor towards the distant temple city of Preah Khan Kompong Svay, a sign that Beng Mealea was a waypoint in the Khmer empire's network of roads and sanctuaries, and today it still feels like a lost city found in the forest. In 2020 it was placed on Cambodia's tentative list for World Heritage status.

Getting there

Beng Mealea lies about 40 km east of the main Angkor group and roughly 43 km in a straight line from Siem Reap. The nearest airport is Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI), about 12 km away. Visitors usually come by car, tuk-tuk or tour from Siem Reap along the road that continues to the temples of Koh Ker.