Baksei Chamkrong Temple

This guide to Baksei Chamkrong Temple in Siem Reap opens with the legend behind its name, a giant bird said to have sheltered King Harshavarman with its wings as he fled an attack on Angkor, and the temple his son supposedly built in thanks. It traces the four shrinking brick tiers rising toward a single tower, once coated in carved white stucco, as one of the earliest Angkor temples built to outlast wood and thatch. Climb the worn north staircase, the only side still considered safe, to reach the top.