2014, Day 211 - Webbed

When most of the trees tear the temples apart this one is holding this wall together.  With time it will eventually constrict around the stone blocks and reduce them to rubble but work is underway to try to prevent that from happening.  I doubt that this will be the site of a restoration project because so much of this complex is so far gone but maybe in a few decades it will have its turn.

Canon 1D X, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II
22mm, f8, merged layers of 1/160, 1/80, 1/40, and 1/20 sec @ 100 ISO

2014, Day 210 - Sentinel

I have no idea where all these stones came from.  Perhaps there was once a wall that surrounded this tower that has since toppled but it seems to sit at the pinnacle of a hill of tumbled blocks.  I love the settling, it is like discovering a wonderful treasure when you come upon a site like this when there is no one around.  That usually means getting up well before dawn but it quickly becomes habit.

Canon 1D X, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II
22mm, f11, merged layers of 1/10, 1/5, 0.4, 0.8, and 1.6 sec @ 100 ISO

2014, Day 209 - Gallery

I love that photography allows you to travel in time.  This picture will be two years old this fall and I just felt like Cambodia this evening and rediscovered it when looking through my folders of unprocessed photos.  Beng Mealea has been consumed by the jungle and it appears to be of a less robust construction than many of the other temples so it is in a more advanced state of digestion.  It is that ruined aspect that makes it interesting.  Trees have torn down walls and the delicately carves stonework has been carpeted in moss.  Frog, lizards, and insects about as do the occasional colonies of bats.  It really does feel like stepping back in time and the picture brings back that sense of wonder and adventure I felt when I was there.

Canon 1D X, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II
23mm, f8, merged layers of 1/15, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, and 1 sec @ 100 ISO

2014, Day 42 - Conquered

Today I decided to return to Cambodia and the awesome temple that is Beng Mealea.  There is something magical about this place, the jungle has returned and reduced a large portion of this once beautiful site to rubble.  But somehow it still manages to be enchanting.  Out of the ruins of the temple are giant trees with extensive root systems that have torn apart the heavy stone blocks.  I love this return to nature and today I wouldn't mind the balmy warmth of the jungle either.

Canon 1D X, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II
22mm, f2.8, merged layers of 1/500, 1/250, 1/125, 1/60, and 1/30 sec @ 100 ISO

2013, Day 121 - Gallery

This is one of the many crumbling courtyards in the sprawling complex of Beng Mealea.  Today the temple is held together and torn apart by the jungle.  Architecturally, as my friend Araceli pointed out, it lacks the sophisticated reinforcement and redundancy found in the later temples but the artistry is exquisite.  Being that this temple seems to have been something of an experiment it is a little startling to find it so exceptional.  It is like a study that would be the foundation for all other and, as such, it possesses a splendor that is exceptional in this land of ancient architectural marvels.

Canon 1D X, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II
16mm, f8, merged layers of 1/100, 1/25, 1/13, and 1/6 sec @ 100 ISO

2013, Day 2 - Passage to nowhere

I'm back in Beng Mealea tonight.  It is quite cold here, near freezing with the wind chill taking it into the upper teens.  So instead of dwelling on the terrible weather outside I am sitting at my desk wrapped in a blanket and trying to recall the heat and humidity of Cambodia.

I can't help but be enchanted by the juxtaposition of man and nature at this temple.  It is like the lily pond that Beng Mealea was named for took offense at the structure and called the jungle to reclaim what was rightfully their land.  It might be a slow process but the plants have been winning.  For better or worse the rediscovery of this ancient site has halted all progress and the battle between temple and jungle is once again being held in check by man.

Canon 1D X, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II
16mm, f8, merged layers of 1/30, 1/15, 1/8, and 1/4 sec @ 100 ISO

2012, Day 350 - Ruined

Beng Mealea was probably the most exciting temple that we visited in Cambodia.  The architecture is quite similar to Angkor Wat but the temple layout, a series of galleries on a single level, is vastly different.  Beng Mealea is probably the most significantly damaged of the jungle temples but the authorities are quite permissive in allowing exploration.  Tumbled stones create somewhat precarious steps to the top of walls along which visitors are free to walk.  It truly feels like exploration but I expect that in the relatively near future access is going to become more limited.  The stress of people climbing through the ruins is threatening the integrity of the site which leaves me with mixed emotions.  I am glad that I got to experience this magnificent temple the way that I did but there is a lingering guilt that I have contributed to the degradation of their amazing place.

Canon 1D X, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II
35mm, f8, merged layers of 1/13, 1/6, and 1/3 sec @ 100 ISO

2012, Day 334 - Just a facade

Tonight we return to Beng Mealea.  I can't get enough of this temple and the more I look at the images the more enchanted I become.  This is a small courtyard outside one of the large antechambers.  Tumbled stones are littered across the ground and trees have a death grip on the buildings but I still marvel that a structure built in the 12th century is still so intact.  Beng Mealea was abandoned to the jungle for hundreds of years and except where the trees have demolished sections the walls still stand straight and true.  There is no discernible settling even though it stands on silty soil and is surrounded by a lotus pond.  The architects and builders of these temples possessed a skill equal to our own the the kings that commissioned these holy sites possessed the patience required to ensure that they would last for centuries.

When I look at this photograph I can feel the humid around me, smell the damp earth that gives the trees and moss so much sustenance and the mellow scent of decaying wood, and hear the steady drone of the cicadas punctuated by the calls of birds.  If you have the opportunity to visit these temples I urge you to go, once you've been there the experience will be emblazoned on your mind forever.  These are living places with their own heart beat and if you listed carefully you can hear it but only if you allow yourself to be lost in the moment, to truly experience the place and not just see it.  To only see Beng Mealea or any of the temples is like that door, it is artificial, there is so much more than what you see, you need to allow yourself to take  in the whole experience otherwise it is just a facade.

Canon 1D X, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II
16mm, f5.6, HDR of 1/50, 1/25, 1/13, 1/6, and 0.3 sec @ 100 ISO

2012, Day 333 - Light at the end

Tonight I share an image from our tomb raiding at Beng Mealea.  At seventy seven kilometers from Siem Reap it may be one of the temples furthest from the heart of the Angkor complex but it is now well visited.  It is only second in size to Angkor Wat and combines Hindu and Buddhist iconography in the carvings.  The construction of this temple is a bit different from many of the others, the overbuilding that was so common is lacking here as was observed by Araceli, an engineer and one of my traveling companions.  The result is that the jungle's attack of this structure has been more devastating than at the other jungle temples.

Below you can see one of the few intact hallways.  We had to slither down through rubble and squeeze past an obstructed but intact doorway to get to this section.  A tree's roots have broken through at the corner of the hall but it hasn't yet demolished the structure.  In time it would no doubt reduce this area to match the rest of the grounds but with careful tending it will be allowed to thrive in harmony with what is left of the temple.

If you were able to look through the window on the left you would find a small courtyard.  Inside there are a couple of trees and surrounding those trees are large sandstone blocks that have been ripped from adjacent rooms and hallways.  A thin carpet of lush green moss covers the stones and small flowering plants have taken root in the meager accumulated soil.

Canon 1D X, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II
16mm, f5.6, HDR layers of 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1, 2, and 4 sec @ 400 ISO