Each country is endowed with its own unique history, culture and identity. Cambodia, albeit its relatively small size, is home to one of the most well-known wonders of the world, Angkor Wat. The temple, with its meticulously crafted wall of artworks and majestic splendor, wows and enamors tourists far and wide.

Angkor Wat is a temple complex located at the Northwest corner of Cambodia, a country of considerable size surrounded by Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. The entirety of Angkor’s sheer scale, which is staggering when we take into account the limited resource and technology available, is more than enough to rival that of all the Egyptian pyramids combined, exceeding that of today’s Paris. Angkor Wat, which translates into Capital Temple, is the largest religious monument in the world, occupying an impressive area of 162.6 hectares. The temple was constructed by King Suryavarman II in the first half of the 12th century and reached completion during the reign of King Jayavarman VII. The Capital Temple was originally a Hindu temple built in honor of Vishnu and was meant to become a state temple as well as the final resting place for Suryavarman II himself. However, through the latter half of the 12th century, Angkor Wat would gradually transform from a Hindu religious center into a Buddhist site. An epitome of Khmer architecture at its best, Angkor Wat, with its grandeur and harmonious architectural design, still upholds cultural significance, made evident by its predominant appearance on the Cambodian national flag and the acclaimed position as a World Heritage Site given by UNESCO.

The Capital Temple lies North of Siem Reap and South of Angkor Thom. Its premise consists of a central structure of a temple mountain and galleried temple encompassed by a rectangular moat of 190 meter in width to ward off encroachment from the surrounding forest. Visitors can gain access through the West sandstone causeway, a later addition, which leads directly to the temple mountain in the center or via an earthen pathway in the East penetrating the thick vegetation outside.

The outer closure is made up of a wall 4.5 meter in height which has the measured dimension of 1024 meter by 802 meter. There are gopuras, giant stonework entrances, at each cardinal point and the West entrance is apparently the largest, which sees three ruined towers with connecting galleries. The visible forest that we observe from the Eastern earth bank was once the location of the city and royal palace. Due to their composition of perishable material, there is nothing left but outlines of former streets.

From the Western gopura, there lies a 350-meter-long walk way linking the outer closure with central temple. The central structure itself was built on the three incrementally high, raised terrace. There are also gopuras distributed in similar fashion to the outer closure’s wall on the topmost level. Each face of the temple mountain sees three sets of steep stairs leading to the outer gallery. In the middle is a cruciform gallery which contains the central shrine. From above, one can see four small corner towers and a larger one in the center. They are arranged in a formation of five dots on the facet of a dice, or to be more technical, a quincrux.

Legend has it that the god Indra ordered for the site to become a palace for his son Prechaket Mealea and that the place was constructed overnight by the hands of a divine architect. Angkok Wat may have been referred to as ‘Varah Vishnu-lok’ – ‘the dwelling of Vishnu’, which derives from its dedication to the said deity. In actuality, the temple was sacked by the Chams, the enemies of the empire, in 1177 during an assault via waterways, nearly 27 years after the demise of King Suryavarman II. The kingdom was later reclaimed by King Jayavarman VII, who established a new capital – Angkor Thom and a new state temple – Bayon, not far away from Angkor Wat. Towards the end of the 12th century, Angkor Wat gradually strayed away from its initial role as a center of Hinduism. Unlike many other Angkor temples, Angkor Wat was not forgotten but instead received preservation due to the advantage of protection from its moat. By 17th century, Angkor Wat had functioned as Buddhist temple. During the mid-19th century, the temple gain popularity in the West thanks to the work of Henri Mouhot, a French explorer and naturalist. In the 20th century, the restoration of Angkor Wat was interrupted by the Cambodian Civil War and Khmer Rouge. It was also ravaged by art thieves operating outside Thailand, resulting in the loss of statue heads or damage to the decorative carvings. 1992 saw its nomination as UNESCO World Heritage.

The location is a unique blend of a temple mountain, a distinguished feature of Khmer Empire state temples, and the concentric galleries. The temple is said to have some correlation to the movements of celestial bodies, most easily observed by its dimension and the towers’ alignment with the sun at solstice. The five towers in the central structure are claimed to represent Mount Meru, sometimes called Sumeru, the mystical five-peak mountain, home to the gods of Hinduism, while the walls and moat resemble the mountain ranges and ocean around Mount Meru. Another noticeable difference from the other Angkor temples is Angkor Wat’s orientation to the West rather than the East. This can probably be attributed to its house deity Vishnu, whose association is with the West. Most of the visible areas are built in sandstone while the rest is of laterite. Angkor Wat’s harmony in design was praised by many as a result of the integration of remarkably meticulous details into the towering and grand overall construct.

Much to the grandeur that is Angkor Wat are its extensive decorations in the form of bas-reliefs friezes. The temple has never failed to astound visitors with its level of refinement and the diversity in details. On the wall of the temple you can find large scale depictions of scenes from religious texts, such as episodic representation of Hindu epics. Bearing resemblance to Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, the bas-reliefs must be interpreted in a linear arrangement. In the Western section, you will find the Battle of Lanka in the epic Ramayana, which spoke of the defeat of Ravana at the hands of Rama, and the Battle of Kurukshetra, which told about the annihilation of the Kaurava and Pandava clans. The Southern part of the temple houses the historical scene of King Suryavarman II’s procession and the 32 hells as well as 37 heavens in Hinduism. The “Churning of The Great Sea of Milk’ is located in the Eastern section while the Northern one displays Krishna victory over Bana and the battle between gods and asuras. Angkor Wat’s beauty is accentuated by an array of statues and carvings depicting apsaras and devatas.