The wonderful little late Angkor-period temple of Ta Phrom lies just an hour or so south of Phnom Penh. It’s in a remarkably good state of repair, has plenty of excellent carved reliefs, a picturesque lakeside setting and was built during the reign of the main man himself: Jayarvarman VII. Ta Phrom at Tonle Bati (Bati being the name of the adjacent lake, which differentiates this site from the more illustrious temple of the same name at Angkor), is one of the best temples to be seen outside of Angkor. It conveniently lies close to the earlier and equally spectacular site of Phnom Chisor, as well as the excellent Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre. The site was probably occupied over a considerable period of time but the main temple you see today—aside from a bit of dubious 16th century tweaking—dates from the late 12th century. Constructed during the Jayarvarman VII period, the temple is Buddhist and unusual in that it never saw the fundamentalist Hindu backlash and defacing of carvings that the Buddhist temples at Angkor ...