We are collectors of travel memories. I have a saved Google Map called “1000 Places to Visit” and every time I see something cool as I troll the information highway I add it to the map. When we decided to go to Thailand I pulled up my map to see what else was nearby to Thailand that would be worth a side trip. As luck would have it just a quick two hour flight from Bangkok was Angkor Wat – a site that contains some of the most impressive ruins we have seen in all our travels.
Somewhat by chance during our travels we’ve ended up immersing ourselves in the history of many of the world’s great civilizations. We’ve visited Egyptian, Mycenaean, Greek, Roman, Minoan, Mayan, Inca, Aztec, Chinese, Japanese and Anasazi ruins on our various trips throughout the world. Now we can add the Khmer Empire, which existed from 802 AD to 1431, to that list.
Angkor Wat – the word Wat means Temple and Angkor means City so literally City of Temples or Temple City – was constructed in the early 12th century and is considered to be the largest religious monument in the world covering some 500 acres. The complex was surrounded by a wall and a huge moat that makes the moats found on European castles and chateaus look small by comparison.
During its peak in the 11th to 12th centuries, Angkor was the largest pre-industrial urban center in the world. It is estimated that more than five million tons of sandstone were used to construct Angkor Wat. All that material would have been carried without use of machinery from a quarry that sits 25 miles away.
Cambodia is now a predominantly Buddhist country but when Angkor Wat was built by King Suryavarman II the Khmer Empire was Hindu and so Angkor was dedicated to the God Vishnu. Later when the King’s religion changed many of the Hindu symbols were replaced with Buddhist ones. While the ruins are pretty impressive today, just imagine how incredible the temples and surrounding buildings would have looked glittering in gold and colorful paints when it was originally built.
The macaques at Angkor Wat can be cute but will grab food right out of your hand along with anything dangling like sunglasses, necklaces and cameras.
Angkor Wat boasts almost 2,000 carvings of Apsara – celestial female spirits – on its walls, alongside other detailed etchings of Hindu and Buddhist myths. The detail is incredible.
Sunrise at Angkor Wat was a great experience.
Angkor Wat was abandoned in 15th century when the Khmer empire moved its center to what is now Phnom Penh. In 1860, a French explorer found the ruins surrounded by thick jungles and brought it to the attention of the outside world. Angkor Archaeological Park is now Cambodia’s top tourist draw, with 2.5 million tourists in 2017. Click Here for more photos of Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat may get all the attention and press but we walked away more impressed with two other temple sites within the massive Archaeological Park. Remember that while Angkor Wat is huge at 500 acres the entire Angkor Archaeological Park is a much larger 155 square miles and includes hundreds of temples and religious structures along with dense jungle and forest areas.
Angkor Thom with its impressive gates and the central Bayon Temple were the ruins I liked the most. Angkor Thom was the last capital of the Khmer empire and was founded in the late 12th century by King Jayavarman VII. Angkor Thom is famous for its giant carved faces at its city gates and at the the central Bayon temple.
I was captivated by the Bayon Temple and its 216 huge faces. There is some debate as to whether the faces depict its creator King Jayavarman VII or the Buddha or the Bodhisattva Lokeshvara.
Angkor Thom is 4 kilometers from Angkor Wat and so we hired a tuk-tuk driver for $20 for the day to take us from site to site. Bicycles were the other option but we were glad for the shaded rest of the tuk-tuk in the intense afternoon heat.
Colorful tuk-tuks line up to go through the South gate of Angkor Thom.
The five gates of Angkor Thom also have the giant carved stone heads facing four directions and my personal favorite – the South Gate – also includes a bridge over the mote that is lined with statues on both sides.
On the left side of the bridge are statues of Gods with serene looks upon their faces.
On the right side are statues of Demons with grotesque faces and expressions of sadness and anger.
Angkor Thom also has the picturesque Terrance of the Elephants with the trunks still intact.
The Terrace of the Leper King and the wall showing the detailed victims of leprosy is also a part of Angkor Thom.
Click here for more pictures of Anchor Thom
Julia’s favorite temple complex was Ta Prohm – also known as the Tomb Raider Temple because scenes from the movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider with Angela Jolie were filmed here.
Ta Prohm was built as a monestary in the 12th-13th century and was dedicated to King Jayavarman VII’s mother.
A decision was made to not reclaim Ta Prohm from the jungle in the manner the other temples in the Archaeological Park were restored. Paths have been cleared and boardwalks have been built so that you can get around, but otherwise the temple probably looks much like when it was discovered in 1860.
Huge silk-cotton trees and strangler figs have creeped over, under, and through many of the walls and structures of the temple. The march of time has also seen walls and archways crumble and moss form anywhere the sun doesn’t reach.
We were the first ones through the gate and we hurried to some of the prime spots to get pictures in the courtyards where the walls looked like they were slowly being smothered by the tentacle-like roots of the ancient trees.
Ta Prohm and Angkor Wat were flung into the limelight when Angelina Jolie was filmed there in the 2001 movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. In one scene she walks among the eerie, root-covered walls of Ta Prohm before falling through the floor into a hidden chamber.
Ta Prohm is built entirely of sandstone and I suspect it will continue to deteriorate over time and the roots will continue to encroach and it will become more and more dramatic.
As a quick three night side trip from Bangkok, Angkor Wat is a memorable destination. If you get a chance to experience this UNESCO Heritage site you will see that it is certainly a wonder of the world.
The Ta Phrom Temple Gallery pictures…oh man! They are entrancing. Thank you for the detailed pictures. They artfully depict the textures and the colors of the aging buildings, the inexorable creeping of the trees as they re-claim their territory, even, somehow, the heat from the sun, the cool of the shade, and the poop-smell of the monkeys. These pictures make me want to see it for myself.
Thank you Mr. Dietz, that’s high praise coming from you. It was a fun place to photograph.