Lost City of Koh Ker and Beng Mealea
Drive to the lost city of Koh Ker, a journey of just over 2 hours through pleasant countryside to Beng Mealea village, where you will make a brief stop before continuing to the first temple complex.
Arrive at the Koh Ker Temple Complex and follow a clockwise circuit around the temples to take advantage of the morning light.
Visit Prasat Pram Temple with its five towers, some of which are draped in tree roots. Also see Prasat Chin, or the Chinese temple, which lies in a state of ruin, with its blackened laterite tower open to the sky.
Travel to the small reservoir of Andong Preng, or the sacred well of oil, before finishing the morning part of the tour at Prasat Thom. See the large moat, the 37-meter-high Prasat Thom pyramid, and numerous thousand-year-old brick temples and shrines.
Take a break for lunch in the temple area before heading out on the eastern part of the circuit, which features some of the largest temple lingas of the Khmer Empire. Prasat Krachap and Banteay Pichean are surrounded by forest, and you may see birds of prey, including eagles, circling overhead.
Continue south to visit the jungle temple of Beng Mealea, situated behind huge walls and dripping with vegetation. Marvel at the huge trees growing out of the ruins. This temple was built 30 years before Angkor Wat, in a similar style and with a similar layout.
