Steep Pre Rup contrasts with the flat layout of Banteay Samre; two different styles but both peaceful with few visitors enjoying Pre Rup's warm red glow and Banteay Samre's many fine carvings.
Built some time within the first half of the twelfth century Banteay Samre1,2 is of similar age, and style, to Angkor Wat. It is remarkably complete and has some of the best-preserved carvings.
The temple is about six kilometres east of Ta Prohm and much less visited than those nearer the centre of the Angkor temple complex.
From the east it is approached by a very fine processional way with naga balustrades and an impressive platform edged with Khmer lions. This leads to the east entrance or gopura.
Scenes from the Battle of Lanka, where the monkeys play an important role, are carved into frontons on the outer enclosure.
The east gopura of the outer enclosure leads into what is now a grassy space around the inner enclosure. Both enclosures have four gopuras, one on each side.
We walked around to the south side and crossed to the inner enclosure. The temple is renowned for its beautiful carving and this is evident in the figurative carving on lintels and decorative carving on the edges of the platforms.
From the east gopura of the inner enclosure a rectangular building called a mandapa leads to the central tower. North and south of the mandapa are two buildings which are called "libraries".
It was very peaceful, at Banteay Samre, though hot.
We were the only people here until a few monks turned up in their orange and saffron robes, as keen to photograph the temple as we were.
Dating from around 960 A.D. in the reign of Rajendravarman, Pre Rup was one of the earliest temples that we visited in the Angkor region, predating Ta Prohm by almost 200 years. It is the last in the area to be of the temple-mountain style without continuous surrounding galleries.1,3
It consists of a pyramid of three tiers with a central tower and four corner towers. The central pyramid is surrounded by rectangular rooms separated by gaps - all later temples would have continuous galleries, as at Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm and many others.
Pre Rup translates as "turn the body" and may have had something to do with the cremation ritual being performed here, though any such links are speculation.
Lying two or three kilometres east of Ta Prohm it presents much reddish laterite and brick where the covering plaster has mostly fallen away. It is a very warm-looking temple, probably very photogenic at sunrise or sunset.
We were visiting late morning on a beautiful sunny day but there were still very few visitors here - it is one of the less-visited temples of the many in the region.
The main entrance was the east gopura, through a laterite wall. Inside there were three towers on each side of the entrance.
