Angkor Wat is the world's largest religious monument, measuring one and a half kilometers by 1.3 kilometers (200 hectares). Built by the great Khmer emperor Suryavarman II, in the early 12th century (1113-1150), it symbolizes the entire Hindu universe: the moat represents the oceans surrounding the earth, the concentric galleries represent the mountain ranges surrounding Mount Meru, the home of the gods, and the five towers represent the five peaks of Mount Meru.
Angkor Wat is also the only building to appear on a flag--the Cambodian flag features the triple towers of Angkor Wat, and every Cambodian government (or rebel group) has featured it on their version of the flag. Understandably--it's quite impressive.
Photos don't really do Angkor Wat justice, any more than Ansel Adams can prepare you for the sight of Yosemite's Half-Dome; the scale just isn't comprehensible from a single small picture. You have to stand there on the causeway, looking down the immense moat, and then at the enormous gates of Angkor, to truly appreciate its size.
The remarkable part about Angkor Wat is that despite its enormous size, virtually every inch of it is covered in detailed stonecarvings; so the scale goes from the gigantic to the very tiny. This is why it's generally considered one of the Seven (surviving) Wonders of the world.
Despite its immensity, in my opinion Angkor Wat hasn't got much ambiance; it's hard to, with throngs of tourists overrunning it. I liked Ta Prohm and some of the remoter temples better. If you go, I would suggest going near the beginning or end of the tourist season, not near Christmas.
Because of the detailed scale, the thumbnails are almost unrecognizable; do look at the larger photos!
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| Angkor Wat at dawn | A horse (center) scratches itself on a palm tree near Angkor Wat. | The causeway leading up to the main gate. To the left is the original causeway; to the right, a restoration. | You would be forgiven for thinking this was a lake--it's 600 feet wide! But it's just the moat surrounding the main buildings. |
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| View from the main gate. The three ruined towers depicted above right are just the gate; the five main towers are inside the compound. | One of the five towers. Notice how steep the steps are--the "easy" steps have a fifty degree angle, and the others are substantially steeper. Going down the steps is quite an experience; fortunately, the south steps have a handrail installed. | Looking down the steps. (Don't climb the tower if you get vertigo!) | And the view from the tower. Here you can see one of the lower galleries, and the moat beyond. Angkor Wat has three levels, each with its own set of elaborately carved galleries. |
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| A monk sitting on one of the lower galleries. Angkor Wat (and the ruins generally) is still used for religious practice, though most of the shrine-tenders are nuns. | Two apsaras (heavenly maidens). There are over two thousand apsaras carved into the walls and pillars of Angkor Wat--and many more in the other temples. | This apsara is smiling and showing her teeth--the only one of 2,000 apsaras in Angkor Wat to do so. Note the exquisite detail! Not bad for a work almost 1,000 years old. | A statue of Vishnu, located to the right of the main entrance. It's generally believed that this statue originally stood in the central shrine of Angkor (there's a Buddha there now). Angkor Wat was originally built as a Hindu shrine, but has been rededicated many times depending on the dominant religion of the time. |
| The Bas-Reliefs | |||
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From entrance to center, Angkor Wat consists of a moat, a main gate, a grassy field with two pools (the first two photos in this collection were taken from the north pool), a lower gallery running all around the main building, a middle gallery with four courtyard pools, and the five towers. The lower gallery is covered in bas-relief carvings to a height of six feet, covering over 600 yards of wall. They depict various religious and historical epics. Again, photos don't do the walls justice; you have to walk along and *see* the elaborate carvings covering the length of a football field. I've picked out some details. Click for the larger photos; the thumbnails are hard to see. |
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| This is from the Battle of Kurkshetra, which pitted five good brothers against a hundred evil ones (guess which side won? ;-) ) Depicted here is a military commander; he has only eight or ten parasols shading him, the king would have many more (15-18). |
The queen, going to war in her royal palanquin. |
The two armies marching to war. Depicted here is a horse-charioteer. | The thick of battle. Here, a soldier grabs his enemy by the hair, the better to skewer him. |
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| Another battle scene. | Scene from a different battle; here, a Thai mercenary marches as an ally of the Khmer. |
Thailand invaded and annexed the Angkor Wat area. Per our guide, during the occupation, they didn't want it known that they had once worked as mercenaries for the Khmer, so they excised all inscriptions referring to Thai soldiers (thus the hole). |
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| This is part of a vast bas-relief showing the Hindu heavens and hells. Here Yama, eighteen-armed ruler of Hell, rides a buffalo while judging the newly dead. | The trapdoor to Hell. In the Hindu pantheon, there are 37 heavens and 32 hells, one corresponding to each of multiple sins. | A sinner being burned alive in a fire in Hell. (I didn't take any pictures of heaven, as it seemed pretty dull and was up higher, harder to photograph.) | Sinners being put into a pot of boiling water in Hell. (Hindu hell should not be mistaken for the Christian hell; it's probably more akin to Purgatory.) |
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| Sinners being driven full of nails in Hell. (As our guide remarked, "They have a lot of fun in Hell.") | Ravana, king of the giants. He has some large number of arms, and twenty heads (you can see them stacked on one another) | The Churning of the Sea of Milk covers another of the walls of Angkor Wat. The asuras (giants) and the gods team up to pull on the body of the giant naga (serpent) Vasuki, which is coiled around Mount Mandara. This rotates the mountain and churns the Sea of Milk. By churning for 1,000 years, they produce the elixir of immortality--which, of course, promptly precipitates a battle. |
Here is Vishnu directing operations. Below is his turtle incarnation, holding up the mountain as it threatens to sink into the sea during the churning. (This relief is quite long and detailed--the photos don't do it justice. For example, there are dozens of different kinds of fish depicted, all topsy-turvy as the sea churns. |
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| Rows of pillars by the bas-reliefs. If you take a closer look, you can see that the bracing cross-bars have been restored. This was done by an Indian team; restoration of the Angkor ruins has been a major international effort. | Angkor Wat at sunset. It's called "Golden Angkor" for a reason... | A Cambodian wedding party on the causeway to Angkor Wat. | |
