“Ta Prohm was left to the jungle on purpose, so colossal strangler-fig roots still pour over its Khmer walls - the half-swallowed ruin made famous by Tomb Raider.”
About Ta Prohm
Jayavarman VII founded Ta Prohm in the late twelfth century as a Buddhist monastery and centre of learning dedicated to his mother, and inscriptions record that tens of thousands of people served and supplied it. When Angkor was restored in the twentieth century, conservators chose to leave Ta Prohm largely entwined with the trees as an example of how the site was rediscovered.
Overview Ta Prohm is the temple the jungle reclaimed. While most of Angkor has been cleared and shored up, Ta Prohm was deliberately left much as explorers found it, with enormous strangler-fig and silk-cotton tree roots pouring over and through its walls, prising apart and somehow holding together the carved stone. Built as a Buddhist monastery and university by Jayavarman VII, it once housed thousands.
Built as a Buddhist monastery and university by Jayavarman VII, it once housed thousands.
The Tree Temple The most photographed roots cascade down doorways and galleries like frozen waterfalls of wood. The temple's tangled, half-collapsed atmosphere drew film crews, most famously for Tomb Raider, cementing its fame as the romantic ruin of Angkor.
The Experience
You move through collapsing galleries where roots grip the masonry overhead and underfoot, the light filtering green through the canopy. Wooden walkways guide you to the celebrated root formations, where queues form for photos. Despite the crowds, the sense of nature and ruin locked together is genuinely powerful, especially early in the day.
Why It Matters
Ta Prohm is Angkor's iconic 'jungle temple', valued both as Jayavarman VII's great monastic foundation and as a deliberate demonstration of the site's overgrown rediscovery, and it is among the most recognisable ruins in the world after its film appearances.
Why Visit
It offers the romance of a lost temple swallowed by forest that the cleared monuments cannot, and it is an easy stop on the small Angkor circuit. Arrive at opening to photograph the famous roots before the crowds and the midday heat build.
✦ Insider Tips
- 1
Arrive right at opening to reach the famous root-covered doorways before the crowds.
- 2
Follow the marked wooden walkways; parts of the temple remain unstable and roped off.
- 3
It is on the small Angkor circuit, easy to pair with Angkor Thom and Banteay Kdei.
- 4
Bring insect repellent, as the shaded, jungly setting attracts mosquitoes.
