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Explore the Unexplored Beng Mealea.

September 4, 2018 /

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Do you enjoy exploring unexplored ruins. Today’s blog is for those who love exploring the unexplored Beng Mealea, an ancient temple ruin of Cambodia  that is definitely worth a visit!

Beng Mealea is one of those places that people often might skip visiting,due to lack of time. We recommend visiting Beng Mealea, you’ll love the experience. Beng Mealea is also called Cambodia’s Hidden Jungle Temple.

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Walking through the wooden footbridge, exploring Beng Mealea. The trees growing along the walls of the temple create good cover and an amazing pictures with shadows of the foilage and sunlight.

HISTORY OF BENG MEALEA:

Beng Mealea or Bung Mealea was a Hindu Temple built for Lord Vishnu. The architectural style of construction of the temple Beng Mealea is identical to that of Angkor Wat. Hence, it is believed to have been built in the 12 th Century during the reign of King Suryavarman II .

In the native tongue of Cambodia called Khmer( Pronounced as Kuh Mai), Beng mealea means Lotus Pond.

Formerly some believe Beng Mealea was considered to be the second capital to Angkor Wat.

The construction of Beng Mealea as I mentioned earlier is similar to that of Angkor Wat. However, one major difference that we noticed was the walls of Beng Mealea. Unlike that of Angkor Wat ,the walls don’t contain much bas reliefs. There were a few carvings, but most of the lintels with the carvings had fallen and were broken.

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CURRENT CONDITION OF BENG MEALEA:

An ancient temple ruin that is almost 70-80% destroyed. Exploring the temple area feels like exploring centuries old destroyed city.

I felt sad that despite such magnificient architectural plan of the temple, it collapsed to this extent.

Here are few pics to give you a glimpse of the temple premises:

Exploring the temple premises.
Exploring the temple premises.

All the huge bricks are the collapsed pieces of the temple. You can see the extent to which the temple has been destroyed.

 

South Eastern Library
South Eastern Library

 

Collapsed Bridge
Collapsed Bridge- If you check out the Plan of the temple Beng Mealea you can see bridges connecting the tower buildings of each direction to the main shrine.

 

Temple remains covered in lichens and mosses.
Collapsed roofs and columns covered in lichens and mosses.

 

Exploring the remains of Beng Mealea Temple.
Exploring the remains of Beng Mealea Temple.

 

Pillars similar to Angkor Wat
Notice the pillars are similar to that of Angkor Wat

 

Broken Naga ballustrade
Naga Ballastrades are build on all four directions .Broken when the temple collapsed.

 

Naga ballastrade
This is the only Naga balustrade that still remains intact.

BRIEF EXPLANATION ON NAGAS:

Naga or Nagas is a sanskrit word that means ‘Serpent’ .The word generally refers to snakes but when depicted as sculptures in ancient temples it is represented as one to seven headed Cobra. This picture shows five headed Naga at Beng Mealea, Cambodia.

The Legend has it that Cambodian ( Khmer) people are descendants of the marriage between an Indian named Kaudinya and the Naga princess.

 

FEW CARVINGS THAT WE NOTICED IN THE FALLEN LINTELS AND COLUMNS OF BENG MEALEA.

Churning of the Ocean of milk.
Scene depicting Churning of the Ocean of milk.

Yama sitting on his buffalo
Notice the centre part of the Bas relief -you’ll see Yama sitting on his buffalo.

 

Fallen Lintel of one of the towers.
Fallen Lintel of one of the towers with Hindu mythology carvings on them. The lintel is fallen upside down with most of it covered in lichens. Hence, we couldn’t figure out the story that was depicted.

Sita's Fire Ordeal
Sita giving her Agni Parikshna (Sita’s Fire Ordeal)

STATUE OF LORD VISHNU – STILL A MYSTERY!!

Our guide Mr Phat, mentioned that it is possible that the statue of lord Vishnu is still inside the main central tower.

When the whole temple collasped ,the statue must have been embedded within the ruins, it should probably be there somewhere broken and in pieces.

I guess some mysteries always stays unsolved!!

WHAT IT FEELS LIKE EXPLORING THE TEMPLE OF BENG MEALEA:

Walking through this archeological site, I could picture how it might have been when it was built. It really felt like walking through the jungle. The whole environment was so serene and pristine. The only sound that you hear in the temple vicinity is that of birds chirping. It reminded me of a malayalam( Indian) movie “Anandabhadram”. The temple despite what it went through still holds beauty. Don’t miss out Beng Mealea when you visit Cambodia.

After I got back to our hotel from trip to Beng Mealea the first thing I looked for was the plan of Beng Mealea coz I was curious to check out the plan of the temple, what did it look like during it’s heydays.

While browsing through an article online this picture caught my attention. The link to the article is mentioned below as the image source.

Image Source

The modern footbridge shown in the pic is the wooden stairs built for tourists to go and explore the temple premises. There is nothing much left of the temple as it is  completely wrecked. As you explore you’ll find huge blocks of sandstone piled up due to the destruction caused, trees ,roots and lichens covering most of the temple walls. You can only explore the temple to places that are connected by the wooden footbridge. Hence please do follow the wooden footbridge.

For those who wish to know more about Beng Mealea please do check out the link below:

For more info click here .

HOW TO REACH BENG MEALEA:

Beng Mealea is about 60 km from seam reap. Beng Mealea was on of the larger temples of Cambodia. Travelling to Beng Mealea via tuk tuk is tough because of the long journey.

Some hotels don’t provide tuk tuk service till Beng Mealea like the one we stayed in. Hence, we booked a Car to visit Koh Ker Temples and Beng Mealea and Roulos group temples on the same day.

This plan is not too hectic hence we do recommend covering Koh Ker temples, Beng Mealea and Roulos group temples in the same day. You can skip temples in Roulos grp and schedule it the next day if you wish to take it slow. It takes about 1.5-2 hrs to reach Beng Mealea from Siem Reap.

I met these beautiful friends at Beng Mealea💞💞💞
I met these beautiful friends at Beng Mealea💞💞💞

By: Aswathi Ashok.

 

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