The famous “Tomb Raider” temple overgrown by jungle. It built in the Bayon style largely in the late 12th and early 13th-centuries by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and university, with the main temple dedicated to his mother. Like most Khmer temples, Ta Prohm is oriented to the east. The temple itself is on the west of the complex. Its a typical "flat" Khmer temple (as opposed to a temple-pyramid or temple-mountain). Five rectangular walls surround a central sanctuary.

 

At its peak it was home to more than 12,500 people (including 18 high priests and 615 dancers), with an additional 80,000 people in the surrounding villages. Ta Prohm has had relatively little restoration so silk-cotton and strangler fig trees grow out of and in some cases now support the ruins, making it particularly photogenic.