Kneeling Guardians

Inside Banteay Srei temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

These kneeling statues of human figures with animal heads are largely replicas. The originals have either been stolen, or moved to museums. Each pair guards one of the six stairways leading to an upper platform of the sanctuary.

Banteay Srei is beautifully decorated. Being built of red sandstone, you get both that wonderful red color still present today, as well as a material that's relatively soft, making it easy to carve out the intricate details you see here. Even looking back on this picture now, I'm still impressed by the level of effort that went into making even a rather small temple, stunningly exquisite.