Angkor Wat - Angkor Thom

The medieval city of Angkor once served as the capital of the Khmer Empire, the indigenous people of Cambodia. Only 3mi (5km) east of Siem Reap Airport, it is very closely located and easily accessible. A thriving ancient megacity, at its peak it housed up to one million residents and contained several hundred temples with over 70 of them found inside the core of the city.

The temples were built over a period of 300 years, first dedicated to Hinduism and later to Buddhism. King Jayavarman II, the first king of the unified country circa 9th century, declared himself a Devaraja (God-King) and as such built himself temples for king-worship. Although very little remains of his structures, Jayavarman set the ground for succeeding kings to follow.

Believing that the mountain was the centre of the world and a link between heaven and earth, the temples were built to resemble mountain-like structures with tall, tapering towers. By the end of the building period in the 12th century Angkor was the largest city in the world.

After repeated invasions from the Thai in the west, in 1432 the Khmer moved the capital to Phnom Penh and Angkor was abandoned. Over the following centuries the city was swallowed by the jungle and disappeared until 1860 when naturalist Henry Mouhot, in search of exotic insects, was cutting his way through the depths of the jungle and came upon the city.

Teams of archaeologists descended upon Angkor to study it until the mid-20th century when decades of political unrest left the city neglected. In the 1990s preservation efforts resumed and in 1992 Angkor was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

I am standing at the Victory Gate within Anghor Thom and I imagine, as lore tells it, the King sending his army through the gate into battle and upon victory welcoming their return. The elaborate arched gate is adorned with four large heads, each facing a cardinal direction, representing gods and demons. At the inner corners of the gate are sculptures of three-headed elephants. Through the gate is a path lined with statues of gods and demons holding onto a seven-headed serpent known as Naga. Just as the army departed into battle centuries ago, I too began my journey heading to the famed Ta Prohm temple that’s been enveloped by giant tree roots.


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