Angkor Wat--one of the Seven Wonders of the World and a UNESCO World Heritage Site

View that Frenchman Mouhot saw in 1860 when he "discovered" Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat  is the most famous place in Cambodia.  Cambodia is known as Kampuchia by the people that live there and most other countries in the world.  once known as the Khmer Empire, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in SE Asia. Its total landmass is 181,035 square kilometres (69,898 sq mi), bordered by Thailand to the northwest,  Laos to the northeast, Vietnam to the east, and the Gulf of thailand to the southwest.  The official religion (practiced by 95% of the population) is Theravaa Buddhism.   It now has a population of 14.8 million people. 

Angkor Wat was first a Hindu, then subsequently a Buddhist, temple complex in Cambodia/Kampuchia and the largest religious monument in the world. The temple was built in the early 12th century.  It is one of the 7 wonders of the world because of its huge proportion, symmetry, Baharan panels, and the Baha relief gallery.  It was named a world heritage site in 1992.

We gathered at 5 a.m. to get a good place to see sunrise at 6:45 over Angkor Wat--along with hundreds of others.

Walking to good spot, with flashlights

Many gathering

Colors before sunrise, reflections in pond

Water lilies in pond

Children selling items

Worker sweeping in front of shop

Shops...coconuts out front

Just before sunrise

sunrise between buildings

No sales

After sunrise we went back to the Probayan Hotel for breakfast, and then headed back to Angkor Wat to see three of the mayor areas.

Our guide was named Viet (full name, Ty Boviet).  He grew up 17 km fro Siem Reap.  He has 3 sisters and one brother and he is the youngest, at age 28.  His other siblings work in the fields like his parents.  His father never went to school and his monther went for 4 years so she can read.   He finished high school, the last two years in Siem Reap where he lived on his own, before going to university.   His mother had two children with her first husband, and then he was killed i nthe civil war.  Her second husband is ten year younger than his mother.  He lost a foot when a mine exploded and spent 3 months in the hospital.   He told us that Kampuchia (the name of the country we call Cambodia) means "Land of gold" and that it has many natural resources.

Viet told us that there had been more than 5000 temples in Kampuchia. Some have been destroyed over time for a variety of  reasons, including political and agricultural.  Some parts were destroyed by bullets and bombs in the mid 1900s.

We started in Angor Wat.     It became the capital of the country in the 9th century. 
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Angkor Wat, the largest monument of the Angkor group and the best preserved. Its amazing  composition, balance, proportions, reliefs and sculpture make it one of the finest monuments in the world. The main temple was made for Vishnu and usually faces East but this temple faced West (the road) as it was too close to the river to face East.  The temple area is 1.5 km from W to E and 1.3 km from S to N.  The original buildings (where people lived) were wood, then newer ones were brick, then volcanic (latorite) rock and finally the newest part was made form sandstone (limestone) as it was easy to carve.  The first buildings may have been built in the 5th century.   "Wat" means "temple." It is generally accepted that Angkor Wat was a funerary temple for King Suryavarman II.  Angkor Wat from the ground to the top of the central tower is  213 meters (699 feet),  with three rectangular or square levels (1-3) Each one is progressively smaller and higher than the one below starting from the outer limits of the temple.

The Hindus came in the first century with the Indian king.  The story is that the country had been ruled by a princess then.  The king came in a big  procession, fought, the princess lost, and the king married the princess (Ni-Li?).


Angkor Wat as it looks today was built from 1113 to 1152.  It was built as temples to the Hindu gods.  Shiva has a third eye and is a protector.  Vishnu has 4 heads.  Brahma has 5 heads and 5 faces but was not very famoius in ambodia.  Ganesha (the elephant) was symbolic of wisdom.  You can read a lot more about the history of the area on the Internet.

Apsara  is a female spirit of the clouds and waters in Hindu and Buddhist mythology.  Angkor Wat had 200 figures of Apsara with 37 different hair styles.

A carving of Apsara

Angkor Wat once was the home to 1,000,000 people when London only had 50,000 people.  The buildings for the gods were made of stone but those the people lived in were made of wood, so they are long gone.

The moat around the area is not natural and was 5 meters deep, but from erosion it was 3 meters deep.  When Viet was young, he used to see boat races there with his father.

There are two entrances, one on the West and one of the East.  We went from the East to try to avoid most of the tourists that started on the West.  There were monkeys galore near the entrance.

 This is our first view of the ancient ruins.

Marcy is on the right

Group photo, overcast, hot, glary day

When the Thai king captured the area in the mid 1300s, he tried to destroy Angkor Wat.  He had elephants pull down some of the structures but it was long, tough work.  The Thai occupied the area from 1352 to 1357, 1359 for 4 months, and in the early 1400s.  The French were the last "official" occupiers.  In 1908 during excavation, a golden egg was found and "stolen."  It supposedly was taken to France.  There were quite a few gen stones taken too.  Another piece of gold weighing 65 grams is supposedly in a private Khemer art collection in New York.

Some of the steps up to the ruins are quite steep.

The galleries on the first two floors are amazing, carved in sandstone.

Not as steep but no railings, so some people did not climb

More Apsara carvings:

Reclining Buddha adorned with orange clothing

Originally walls carvings were painted and some of the colors still show through

Looking down on center courtyard from third floor

A Buddha statue

Angkor Wat was never abandoned.  AT least ten to twenty people lived in the area at some time.  In 1748 Khmer houses were found inside and outside this wat.  The jungle did not take over the area.  

Damaged, headless statues

Viet took us took an era which had echoes.
Also he showed us the different levels for bowing in Cambodia and the types of people one bows to at different levels.

 We next went to the Byon Wat. 

The Bayon Temple had a royal palace nearby made of wood and stone and about 10,000 people lived here.  The qualiaty of the sandstone and the carvers was not as good as the ones at Angkor.  The tower here was covered with gold, but the gold was stolen.

Every tower ha 4 faces, one on each side.  The king who built this made a gradual change from Hindu to Buddhist, incorporating both in the Wat.  There were 49 towers originally  with 5 gates totally 54 like the 54 provinces but now there are 37.    This area was 36 years younger tan Angkor Wat. 

The faces on the towers were awesome to see.

Records were found that said that one temple had 586 stone houses, 286 wood houses, 35 diamonds, more than forty thousand pearls, 523 gold parasols, a 500 kilogram place of gold and another similar one of silver. 

The final temple that we went to was the Ta Prohm temple where the jungle was taking over the Wat when it was rediscovered.  The movie Tomb Raider was partially filmed at this Wat in the year 2000, just as the area was being developed for tourists. 
Much of the jungle is still seen as taking over this Wat.

Statue behind tree roots

We were very tired and hot when we went back to the hotel.  Several of us including me took advantage of the hotel's swimming pool!   Marcy, Dennis, and I took a tuktuk into the Siem Reap tourist center, and Dennis  I got a massage at the Seeing Hands massage, a place that Kakada recommended.  The place looked a bit dingy, and it turned out that there were at least four different Seeing Hands massage centers, and he was referring to a different one!

Tuk Tuk

The guy on the right was the one why gave me the massage--he seemed to be learning

Menu in front of a restaurant

Pub Street was very crowded and noisy. We ate at a restaurant on this street

Crocodile burger, anyone?

Handicapped musicians

They played well

 Two signs of interest to us:

We had had enough of the noisy touristy area and headed back to the hotel.

 Later we heard from Shira that she went to the children's circus and found it quite enjoyable and less touristy, a program to train disadvantaged children.