Angkor
Angkor was the capital city of the Khmer empire and flourished from approximately the 9th to 15th centuries. At its height Angkor had been the largest pre-industrial city in the world, with an elaborate infrastructure system connecting an urban sprawl of about 1 million people and at least 1,000 square kilometres (390 sq mi) to the well-known temples complex at its core. To put this in context, the population of London in the 12th century was about 15,000.
The scale of the whole Angkor complex is difficult to appreciate: when you are in any temple, you typically can’t see any of the others. The outer walls of the Angkor Wat Temple for instance are each over half a mile long. There are about 1,000 religious structures on the site so we had to be driven between them.
The most popular temples are Angkor Wat itself, Ta Prohm (which had been left a ruin early on, hence the trees growing through the buildings), Bayon (with its multitude of serene and smiling stone faces on its many towers) and the multi-tiered Baphuon.
We took an enormous number of photos over the time we were here and only a small selection are on these pages. I feel that you could point your camera in any random direction & still end up with stunning photos as the architecture & decorations are so marvellous.
Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat is a Hindu-Buddhist temple located on a site measuring over 400 acres within the ancient Khmer capital city of Angkor. It was originally constructed in the 12th century as a Hindu temple dedicated to the deity Vishnu. It was later gradually transformed into a Buddhist. Considered to be the largest religious structure in the world, it is regarded as one of the best examples of Khmer architecture and a symbol of Cambodia, depicted as a part of the Cambodian national flag.
Outer walls of Angkor Wat from the South East
Ta Prohm
Ta Prohm It was built in the Bayon style largely in the late 12th century and early 13th century and was originally called Rajavihara (“Royal Monastery”). Almost 80,000 people were required to maintain or attend at the temple, including over 2,700 officials and 615 dancers. The temple is referred to as the “Tomb Raider Temple” due to its depiction in the film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
Ta Prohm was built without mortar and, after it was abandoned, trees took root in the loosened stones. The trees growing out of the ruins and the jungle surroundings have made it one of the most popular in the area. It has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1992.
Baphuon and Bayon Temples
The Baphuon also known as the “golden mountain” is built on an artificial hill. It was originally dedicated to Shiva and later converted to a Theravada Buddhist temple. The temple was built on land filled with sand, and due to its immense size the site was unstable throughout its history. By the 20th century, much of the temple had largely collapsed. A large-scale project to dismantle the temple so that its core could be re-enforced before the whole would be re-constructed again was abandoned after civil war broke out in 1970. The workers and archaeologists were forced to leave 300,000 carefully labelled and numbered blocks surrounding the temple. However, the plans identifying the pieces were lost during the decade of conflict and the Khmer Rouge period that followed. A second project to restore the temple was launched in 1996 It took 16 years to complete what had become known as the “largest 3D jigsaw puzzle in the world”. In April 2011, after 51 years of work, the restoration was completed and the temple formally re-opened.
The Bayon is a richly decorated Khmer temple related to Buddhism, built in the late 12th or early 13th century as the state temple of the King Jayavarman VII. The Bayon’s most distinctive feature is the multitude of serene and smiling stone faces of Brahma – probably modelled on the face of that King – on every side the many towers that jut out from the upper terrace and cluster around its central peak. The name of “Bayon” was only given by the French explorer Aymonier in 1880.
Other Temples & Structures in The Angkor Complex
The Elephant Terrace is part of the walls of the ancient capital of Angkor Thom – which encloses the Baphuon and Bayon Temples. The 350 meter-long Terrace of Elephants was used as a giant reviewing stand for public ceremonies.
Banteay Srei is one of the oldest and smallest of the temples in Angkor with exquisite carvings. Unfortunately, the temple has been ravaged by pilfering and vandalism. When, toward the end of the 20th century, authorities removed some original statues and replaced them with concrete replicas, looters took to attacking the replicas.
Preah Khan was the centre of a substantial organisation, with almost 100,000 officials and servants in its heyday. The temple has a basic plan of successive rectangular galleries around a Buddhist sanctuary complicated by Hindu satellite temples and numerous later additions.
Neak Pean is an artificial lake with a Mahayana Buddhist temple on a circular island in the middle which is associated with the Preah Khan temple. It was originally designed for medical purposes, the ancients believed that going into such pools would balance the elements in the bather, thus curing disease.
