Angkor temples

Pre Rup

Built by king Rajendravarman II (944-968), this Hindu temple was used for cremations. The name Pre Rup ("turn or change the body") recalls one of the rituals of cremation in which the ashes are represented to different orientations.

It is a three-level mountain temple with 17 brick towers on rows of sandstone and laterite. The bricks are held together with vegetable glue. Good lighting at the end of the day when the suns rays scrape across the countryside.

The temple is almost identical in style to the east mebon although it was built several years later. It dominates the vast plain that is irrigated by the eastern baray.