Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm temple door and stone detail, Khymer architecture, Cambodia

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After the fall of the Khmer empire in the 15th century, the temple of Ta Prohm was abandoned and neglected for centuries. When the effort to conserve and restore the temples of Angkor began in the early 20th century, the École française d'Extrême-Orient decided that Ta Prohm would be left largely as it had been found, as a "concession to the general taste for the picturesque." According to pioneering Angkor scholar Maurice Glaize, Ta Prohm was singled out because it was "one of the most imposing [temples] and the one which had best merged with the jungle, but not yet to the point of becoming a part of it". Nevertheless, much work has been done to stabilize the ruins, to permit access, and to maintain "this condition of apparent neglect"

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Size: 5616px × 3744px
Photo credit: © Scenics & Science / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: angkor, architecture, cambodia, detail, door, ii, khymer, laterite, prohm, sandstone, stone, suryavarman, ta, temple, vishnu, wat