Banteay Samre Highlights

Banteay Samre is a well kept temple with a fairly isolated location away from the crowds who tend to venture toward the busier more central Angkor temples. The journey here is easily one of the Banteay Samre highlights in itself. To access the remote site you'll take in beautiful Cambodian countryside in the way of rice paddies and local villages.

Once you have found the temple, take time to enjoy the serenity of the site and the peaceful atmosphere in which to explore. The most striking element to the temple would have to be its tower which bears exact resemblance to the Angkor Wat tower. Moreover, to anyone familiar with North East Thailand's Phimai temple, this could again be almost an exact replica, only compacted.

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Banteay Samre temple, Cambodia.

Once you examine the temple in more detail, there are some exciting features which anyone with an acute eye for archaeology would undoubtedly appreciate, especially given its recent restoration. Hindu mythology is ever present in the gallery of the outer enclosure, and the three gopuras of the outer enclosure are all decorated with many deep relief pediments depicting scenes from the Ramayana. In the gallery you can find depictions of scenes such as Vishnu fighting with asuras, or Rama, Hanuman and Lakshmana with their monkey army in battle. Within the inner enclosure, there are many libraries, and some impressive deep carvings, some of which include Krishna in battle with a serpent, Ramayana scenes with monkeys, and dancing musicians.

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