Travel Guide Bantey Chmar

A former stronghold of the Khmer Rouge, Bantey Chhmar is a poor village marked by the rural exodus of many young people. These people leave their homes to seek work in Thailand, a more developed country, with the hope of a better life, but often find themselves exploited by textile factories with little regard for labor rights, and their living conditions are often very difficult. The village is also home to one of the most important temples of the Angkorian period. As large as Angkor Wat, but abandoned for over 800 years, it now lies in ruins. Bantey Chhmar is above all a temple where you can seek out the thrill of climbing over crumbling blocks to discover hidden nooks and crannies, or crawling through the dark light of clammy galleries. Perhaps you'll have better luck than the seven looters who were buried a few years ago beneath the stones they were trying to wrest from Vishnu... Despite its supposed protection, Bantey Chhmar continues to be pillaged. Whenever they learn of this, some of the site's local residents send detailed letters and e-mails to Unesco, but these cries of alarm go unheeded by the responsible authorities. Bantey Chhmar is probably too far from Phnom Penh... and why risk upsetting the military (charged with protecting the temple). The Bantey Chhmar temple is an architectural mystery.