Bakong Temples

This guide to the Bakong temple in Siem Reap opens with an order from King Indravarman I in 877, to feed the kingdom before building anything for the gods. It follows the nearly four-kilometer reservoir he built first, and how that harvest surplus paid for Bakong, finished around 881 as the oldest Khmer temple mountain raised in sandstone. Climbing toward its five terraces, you'll pass stone elephants worn smooth by nine centuries of rain, a serpent-lined causeway, and lions guarding the stairways, plus a summit tower rebuilt three centuries later by Buddhist hands.