Photo: Olaf Tausch (CC BY 3.0)
A self-guided audio tour along the Banteay Srei road from Siem Reap, driven between sites by tuk-tuk or car and walked at each one. It begins at Banteay Samre, a temple in the style of Angkor Wat cleared of forest in 1930 and restored by Maurice Glaize between 1936 and 1944, from its laterite causeway through the galleries and libraries to the single tower of its central sanctuary. The Cambodia Landmine Museum, beside the road, was founded by Aki Ra, a former child soldier who has cleared tens of thousands of mines by hand, and opened at this site on 22 April 2007. At Banteay Srei, entered from the interpretation centre, the walk follows the eastern gopura and the processional way, the moat, the libraries and their pediments and the three sanctuaries and their guardians; the temple was consecrated in 967 to Shiva, founded not by a king but by a Brahmin of the court, Yajnavaraha, and its date was settled only in 1936, when its foundation stele was found. The tour ends high in the Kulen hills at Kbal Spean, the river of a thousand lingas, where gods are carved into the riverbed along some hundred and fifty metres of stream, above a waterfall.
12 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 14 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 5 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Banteay Samre: the eastern causeway and terrace, Banteay Samre: the raised galleries and the libraries, Banteay Samre: the central sanctuary, The Cambodia Landmine Museum.
Banteay Srei: the interpretation centre, Banteay Srei: the eastern gopura and the processional way, Banteay Srei: the moat and the inner enclosure, Banteay Srei: the libraries and their pediments, Banteay Srei: the three sanctuaries and their guardians.
Kbal Spean: the river of a thousand lingas, Kbal Spean: Vishnu and the gods of the riverbed, Kbal Spean: the waterfall.
The 200-metre laterite causeway lined with naga balustrades, leading to a raised terrace guarded by paired stone lions.
The museum Aki Ra founded to show the mines, bombs and mortars he and his team removed from the ground, opened here in 2007.
The way into the temple consecrated to Shiva in 967 and founded by Yajnavaraha, a Brahmin of the court rather than a king.
The two mirror-image libraries of the inner enclosure, their triangular pediments carved with detailed religious scenes.
The three Hindu sanctuary towers in a north-south line on a common platform, approached from the east.
The stream high on the slopes of the Kulen hills whose bed is carved with Hindu imagery, named for a natural rock bridge.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 12 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 12 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Banteay Srei, Banteay Samre and Kbal Spean, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
12 narration points, including Banteay Samre: the eastern causeway and terrace, Banteay Samre: the raised galleries and the libraries, Banteay Samre: the central sanctuary, Banteay Srei: the eastern gopura and the processional way and Banteay Srei: the libraries and their pediments. That is about 19 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~4 hours with the drives total, but you walk at your own pace. 12 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.