Banteay Srei

Banteay Srei is the jewel box of Angkor — a 10th-century Hindu temple 25 kilometres northeast of the main complex whose miniature scale and extraordinarily detailed pink sandstone carvings make it the most artistically refined temple in the entire Khmer architectural tradition. André Malraux (the French writer who later became Minister of Culture) attempted to steal several of the temple's carvings in 1923 — he was caught, convicted, and the incident made both him and the temple famous.

The temple's carvings are the finest in the Angkor complex — scenes from Hindu mythology (Ravana shaking Mount Kailasa, the battle of the monkey kings Valin and Sugriva) rendered in pink sandstone with a precision and depth of relief that makes the carvings at Angkor Wat look rough by comparison. The sandstone's softness allowed the carvers to achieve a level of detail — individual hairs, textile patterns, facial expressions — that the harder stone used at larger temples cannot support.

Banteay Srei means 'Citadel of Women,' though the name may refer to the temple's delicate carvings rather than any association with women. The temple's location, away from the main Angkor circuit, means it's less crowded than Angkor Wat or Bayon, and the drive through the Cambodian countryside — past rice paddies, palm-sugar production, and the village life that continues around the ancient monuments — provides context for the rural landscape that the Khmer Empire's wealth was built on.