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| Preah Vihear temple in northern Cambodia was built between 893 and 1200 at the edge of a cliff in the Dangrek Mountains. (Susan Spano / For The Times) |
Near Siem Reap, Cambodia, the Khmer Empire’s monuments are revealing their secret hideaways in the jungle as land mines are being cleared and roads are being built to get to them.
March 6, 2011
By Susan Spano
Special to the Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Siem Reap, Cambodia — When French travel writer Pierre Loti took an ox cart to Angkor shortly after Westerners rediscovered it in the 19th century, he found creeper-choked ruins and the profound silence of the Cambodian jungle. Siem Reap, population 100,000, now at its threshold, has scores of fancy resort hotels, a pub street, a new branch of the national museum and an international airport where millions of tourists arrive every year to see the fabled temples of Angkor.
The Khmer Empire, which ruled much of Southeast Asia from 800 to 1400, built monuments all over Cambodia, but the rigors of getting to them, many in rough territory ringed by land mines left after Cambodia’s long civil war, kept many travelers away.
The situation has changed. In some areas mine clearing has been completed, and with Cambodia at peace, the government has launched a road-building campaign, bringing long-lost Khmer sites beyond Angkor within reach of travelers who dream of encounters with Cambodia’s ancient wonders à la Loti.
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