This Tree Root Temple In Cambodia Is Overgrown With Strangler Figs That Make It Look Otherworldly

Nature’s spectacular takeover of an ancient Buddhist temple.

Ta Phohm or ” Eye of Wisdom” is a temple near the city of Siem Reap, Cambodia, that was built largely in the late 12th century and early 12th century as part of a larger complex called Angkor Wat. It is also called the “Tomb Raider Temple” or the “Angelina Jolie Temple” due to its depiction in the film lara Croft: Tomb Raider(2001).

Massive trees that resemble ancient redwoods and oaks are incorporated into the walls, and the temple has a strange aspect thanks to rocks that cling to the enormous roots of the trees. It is one of Angkor’s most visited temples due to the picturesque and atmospheric combination of trees sprouting out of the ruins and the forest environs.

Ta Prohm was built by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and university. The temple of Ta Prohm was neglected for centuries after the Khmer Empire collapsed in the 15th century. When the effort to conserve and restore the temples of Angkor began in the early 20th century, it was decided that Ta Prohm would be left largely as it had been found, as a “concession to the general taste for the picturesque.”

The temple of Ta Prohm was used as a location in the film Tomb Raider. Although the movie used artistic license when depicting other Angkorian structures, its depictions of Ta Prohm were remarkably accurate and made advantage of the temple’s unsettling features.