Ta Prohm Temple

Address: Ta Prohm, Angkor Archaeological Park, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Website: https://www.apsaraauthority.gov.kh

Hours: Daily 5:00am-6:00pm (Angkor Archaeological Park)

Admission: Angkor Archaeological Park ticket - 1‑day US$37, 3‑day US$62, 7‑day US$72

Ta Prohm is a temple in the Angkor complex of northwestern Cambodia originally built as a Buddhist monastery and learning centre in the late 12th to early 13th century. It is internationally known for the large trees that have grown through and around its stone structures.

What visitors also find - Ta Prohm’s layout includes outer enclosures, causeways and a central sanctuary complex typical of large Khmer temple-monastery sites; conservation work focuses on stabilizing both trees and masonry. Because of its popularity, early morning is the calmest time to explore the complex.

Built during the reign of Jayavarman VII, Ta Prohm served as a major monastic complex and was one of the largest temples in Angkor. Over subsequent centuries the site fell into ruin and was gradually reclaimed by the forest until modern conservation and selective clearing allowed visitor access while preserving the root-masonry interplay.

Located east of Angkor Wat and south of Bayon within the Angkor Archaeological Park, Ta Prohm is reached by the same park roads used for the main temple circuit.

• Dating and vegetation: Constructed in the late 12th to early 13th century under King Jayavarman VII as a Buddhist monastery and university complex; the site is famous for trees (mainly Tetrameles and strangler figs) rooted in and around the ruins.
• Best time to visit: Popular photography and film location due to the dramatic combination of ruined stonework and giant tree roots; best visited early to avoid the busiest hours.

What to See#

• Core temple complex: The main temple- monastery complex with tall galleries and inner sanctuaries left deliberately semi-ruined and intertwined with large tree roots that grow through the masonry.
• Enclosure and approach: Outer enclosure, causeways and subsidiary structures that show the original monastic layout and approach to the central sanctuary.

Ta Prohm is oriented eastward and best visited early, when the sun lights the east-facing towers and before the tour buses arrive. Have your driver drop you at the eastern parking area and collect you at the western one about an hour later. Visitors follow wooden walkways marked with “way of visit” arrows that lead past the most interesting areas and the best photo spots.

The eastern approach. After passing through the easternmost (fifth) enclosure wall, a shady path runs several hundred metres to the fourth enclosure, where you meet the first of the trees growing atop the temple. Step through the doorway to your right, if open, to pose with the tree inside the gopura - one of the most popular photo sites in all of Angkor, though a barrier now keeps you back.

The Hall of Dancers. Continuing west, the path passes along the north side of the Hall of Dancers, which - like those at Preah Khan and Banteay Kdei - was likely used for ceremonial dance; if it is open you can see apsara dancers carved on the pillars and on the lintels above the interior doorways.

The heart of the temple. Passing through the third enclosure wall brings you inside the temple proper. Follow the wooden path through the maze-like collapsed chambers and corridors that lead to the central sanctuary, and take time to explore the third and second enclosure courtyards for further photo opportunities, particularly in the northeast of the third enclosure and the southwest of the second.

The western gopura. As you leave the western gopura of the second enclosure, look for the small bas-relief that resembles a stegosaurus. From here you can continue out to the western parking area or loop back to explore the quieter corners of the ruinous, jungle-swallowed labyrinth - the interior scenes here featured in the Tomb Raider film.

Ta Prohm is in the Angkor Archaeological Park, roughly 6-8 km northeast of Siem Reap town. The usual way to get there is by tuk‑tuk, bicycle or private vehicle from Siem Reap (about 20-30 minutes depending on traffic) and using the Angkor Park roads; entry requires a valid Angkor pass.

There is a small parking area and the temple is a short walk from the road; Ta Prohm is commonly visited together with nearby Angkor Wat and other Angkor sites as part of a full- or half-day circuit.

• Aim to be among the first group in at opening or arrive right after the earliest Angkor Wat crowds depart; Ta Prohm is extremely popular and is noticeably quieter in the first hour of opening.
• Walk off the main path into the side galleries and smaller corridors - some of the most photogenic root-and-ruin scenes are found in less-trafficked corners that many visitors skip.
• Spend a little extra time on the site's shaded western and southern walks where tree roots frame doorways and scatters of collapsed masonry create quieter compositions away from the main tourist flow.

Ta Prohm was one of several expansive monastic complexes built during the reign of Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century. Like the neighbouring Banteay Kdei and Preah Khan - also his foundations - it is laid out horizontally along an east-west axis, an outer enclosure wall of roughly 700 by 1,000 metres surrounding now-forested grounds within which further enclosures frame zones of ceremonial and religious structures.

A temple of vast wealth. The foundation stela discovered at the temple records nearly 80,000 people in service of Ta Prohm, among them over 600 dancing girls, and a treasury holding more than 40,000 pearls along with golden dishes weighing over half a tonne.

Held together, then torn apart, by the trees. The trees that make Ta Prohm so picturesque grow from seeds fallen between the stones. As the roots swell they force through roofs and walls, occasionally collapsing chambers but otherwise gripping the sandstone blocks like giant fingers as they climb. When a tree finally dies - struck by lightning or toppled by the wind - its roots decay and the stones they once buttressed fall into rubble. Famed for being “deliberately left in an uncleared state” so visitors could imagine the temple as western archaeologists found it a century ago, Ta Prohm today balances that atmosphere against extensive restoration, with cranes and scaffolding alongside the roots.