Beng Mealea Temple in Cambodia – Finding Angkor’s Jungle Labyrinth

A few hours from Siem Reap is Cambodia’s hidden jungle-encased Beng Mealea temple. Here’s how to see more Angkor history away from the main sites. 

It took me over six hours to cycle from Siem Reap to the jungle-encased Beng Mealea temple in Cambodia on a journey that would normally take an hour by public transport.

Biking through the flat plains of the Cambodian countryside on dusty ochre turf and avoiding the main, paved highway routes. If you are looking for a Beng Mealea tour with an explorative angle – this is it. 

From simple countryside outings and the Angkor temple tours that last days and get you out of the city, there are bike tours for all endurance and curiosity levels. I booked the one which looked the most challenging and which would take me on a 75km ride starting from the centre of Siem Reap.

A ride to Beng Mealea, seen as one of the core Angkor Wat period temples, is located east of the main temples of Angkor in the city on what was once a royal highway that connected them all. 

Getting to Beng Mealea Temple from Siem Reap

Beng Mealea Tour by Bike

I was informed that the tour would last approximately nine hours, starting at 7 am and finishing at 4 pm. I assumed this to be a few hours of bike riding, a break for lunch and the temple visit, and then a few hours to return.

Instead, we set out on a ride that would take us directly to Beng Mealea from Siem Reap city, with an estimated arrival time of 2 pm, where we would later get a tuk-tuk home.

It was much further than I thought, but I was ready for the challenge, equipped with a new mountain bike and a Khmer local for guidance and language support.

With a mixture of awe and agony, it was a scenic and adrenaline-pumped day. When biking, you quickly turn off the first main road and begin a six-hour off-the-beaten-track journey that takes you through the golden-hued Cambodian countryside, where fisherman and ox and cart farmers line the green, watery flatlands and where orange dirt tracks and luscious palm trees guide the way.

Public Transportation Options

However, not everyone has the stamina or the time to embark on a long, countryside-flanked tour. Getting to Beng Mealea by public transport is easy and requires some pre-planning and haggling. Options include:

• Taking a tuk-tuk: which will cost in the region of $20-$30
  • Two hours each way, including wait time
• Hiring a taxi: which will cost in the region of $40
  • One hour each way, including wait time

The only downside is missing out on a lot of the scenery since getting to Beng Mealea this way is via main roads and passing through a village area on the approach to the temple. 

Beng Mealea Tour Options

Even if you are not a regular bike rider, a long-haul biking adventure is an opportunity to see a different side of Cambodia. Grasshopper Adventures day bike tours start from around $45 – $99, including customised tours of personal interest like this. You can check the full tour list. 

You can enjoy a full-day tour of Beng Mealea and the lost city of Koh Ker and have the opportunity to visit two off-track UNESCO temples in one day. The price excludes the temple entrance fees but includes pick up and drop off to your hotel/hostel and a picnic lunch on the grounds of Beng Mealea. 

This trip combines Beng Mealea with Kulen Mountain Waterfall and the floating village of Kampong Phluk on Tonle Sap lake.

Or double up a temple trip with a visit to the village of Kompong Kleang, where the sandstone blocks for Beng Mealea were cut from. 

The Way to Beng Mealea – City to Overgrown Jungle 

While I was living in Cambodia at the time and had already seen a lot of countryside working in a local village, this remained one of my best and most beautiful experiences yet of rural. So much so I had to constantly stop to take it all in, savour the serenity and capture photos of a route I would never be able to re-trace alone.

My guide was patient and provided good insight, and there was not one other tourist in sight for the entire journey. It was just me, my new Khmer friend and the beautiful local people who waved and high-fived us throughout the journey.

It was an arduous journey at times, especially in the constant heat that bears down on you. I got tired and felt irritable. I had to pull over near the end to guzzle a bottle of water and munch through some snacks to regain a little energy! I wondered why I put myself up for a Tour De Siem Reap.

Yet, with a bike, you are the master of your journey. You can choose when to slow down. You can choose when to stop and take hold of the scene in front of you. A tuk-tuk or a car wouldn’t afford you such an opportunity.

Visiting Beng Mealea – Cambodia’s Jungle Temple 

Arriving at the temple entrance, you stand immediately in front of a stone-stacked facade flanked by a towering diamond-shaped portal that summons you to find a way in after centuries of remaining hidden.

Beng Mealea, a temple on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List since 1992, still lies in ruin, largely unrestored. Yet, this unstirred scene is exactly what makes this site so fascinating. 

The history of Cambodia’s jungle temple is unknown, although inspection puts it in a similar architectural style and layout to Angkor Wat, only smaller. Beng Mealea, built entirely from sandstone, is assumed to have also been constructed in the 12th Century. Nature has reclaimed the space where this temple once stood as the spiritual centre in the middle of a large town. 

Only the jungle knows the temple’s real standing and remains defiant in concealing it. 

Beng Mealea hasn’t been opened to the public as long as the complex of Angkor temples in central Siem Reap. It’s only been a little more than a decade that people have been finding their way through the jungle floor as it is slowly uncovered.

That means it’s a little more untrodden and less known, adding to its unkempt canvas’s explorative feel. It’s like getting to and exploring the Preah Vihear Temple in Cambodia, a hard-to-reach archaeological site and a contested border with Thailand. 

My Cambodian guide, proud to show off the ancient history of his country, took me on a route through the temple where no one else could be found. We clambered haplessly over toppled stones that were once magnificent rooftops and towering doorways, meandered through lost corridors, and swung on the branches that had weaved their way through the historical labyrinth and taken over the temple structure.

We found peace at the end of a long and strenuous day. An opportunity to see a different side of Cambodia, visiting Beng Mealea will end up being a temple adventure you first assumed was out of reach but one that rewards you if armed with enough curiosity and stamina. 

Beng Mealea Entrance Fee

According to the Tourism of Cambodia, the regular admission ticket (see below) for the monuments of Angkor (a collective ticket for the multiple temple sites) is not required to visit Beng Mealea. There is a separate entrance fee of $20, $10 and $5. 

If you do intend on visiting the holy trinity of the Angkor temple complex that includes Angkor Wat, Ta Phrom (the ‘Tomb Raider’ Temple) and Bayon (the temple with the faces), you will need to purchase the main ticket that covers a collection of temples separate to Beng Mealea, Phnom Kulen and Koh Ker.

• Single-day ticket: $37
• Three-day pass: $62
• Seven-day pass: $72 

Beng Mealea Day Trips

There are a host of day trips to Beng Mealea from Siem Reap that combine visits to other nearby historical, cultural and natural sites of interest. 

• Combine two historical sites on this day tour that visits the ancient capital of Koh Ker and Beng Mealea: Klook /GetYourGuide)
• Opt for a water-bound full-day tour of the Kulen Mountains waterfalls, Beng Melea and a boat trip through the floating village of Kampong Phluk: Klook / GetYourGuide