🛕 Banteay Kdei

Banteay Kdei is often overshadowed by its famous neighbor Ta Prohm, but this Buddhist monastery offers a more peaceful and intimate temple experience. Built in the same period and style as Ta Prohm, it features similar face towers and apsara carvings but with considerably fewer tourists. The temple was built around an older 10th-century structure and shows multiple construction phases. In 2001, a Japanese archaeological team discovered a remarkable cache of 274 Buddhist statues intentionally buried within the temple grounds, likely during a period of iconoclasm. The Hall of Dancers with its elaborate apsara carvings is particularly beautiful, and the eastern entrance is framed by impressive gopura towers.