It was in the year 1186 that the city of Angkor saw the completion of one of its greatest temples, Ta Prohm. Built by King Jayavarman VII to honour his mother, Ta Prohm encompasses one hectare of land, while its protective moat and outer wall cover an area of almost 60 hectares, its boundaries now only recognisable by a stone tower in the west. At one time, the complex even housed a town of 80,000 who cared for its grounds, beating back the encroaching jungle growth.

After the abandonment of its people, the temple slowly began losing the battle to maintain its towers and houses, their carved stones now crumbling and precariously fragile, tangled in the ancient roots of strangler fig trees and twisted limbs of banyans. For reasons known only to the French restorers who re-discovered it, the temple was left as it lay. Because of its natural state, visiting the temple is to discover it again as the French explorers did in the mid 19th century.

An early morning outing with a guide and flashlight will uncover dark passages, vestibules, Buddha images carved into wall niches of concentric galleries, and a central sanctuary where ritual dances once took place. Remnants of lions, serpent balustrades and mythical creatures lie scattered throughout the grounds. And over the years, beautiful walls of bas-relief fragmented with the force of clawed vegetation have became blanketed with soft moss and the ruined remains of pillars that long ago stretched towards the sky have fallen.