The temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia is often considered one of the most magnificent monuments in the world. A national symbol of Khmer history and culture, the temple features on Cambodia’s national flag, and is one of the country’s top tourist attractions. Over 900 years old, the temple-city was the jewel in the crown of the Khmer empire, and is known for its astonishing size, beauty, and engineering. While Angkor Wat has been occupied in some form throughout most of its history, its secrets are still being uncovered today, making it one of the most beloved and mysterious historic sites in the world.
History of Angkor Wat
Building of Angkor Wat began under the rule of the Khmer King Suryavarman II, between 1122CE and 1150CE. His reign was one of artistic development and construction, and he conceived Angkor Wat as a Hindu temple, city, and mausoleum for the king. Its original name is not known, as no inscriptions have been found.
Just 27 years after it was completed, the rival Cham kingdom sacked the city. When it was restored to the Khmer rulers, the King Jayavarman VII (builder of other monuments such as Ta Prohm and Angkor Thom) believed the Hindu gods had failed him, and had Angkor Wat converted to a Buddhist temple, replacing much of the artwork with Buddhist iconography.
In an event known as the Fall of Angkor, the Siamese empire of Ayutthaya sacked the city in 1431. The last King of the dwindling Khmer empire, Ponhea Yay, fled the city and retreated to Basan, and then to Chaktomuk. However, this marked the end of the Khmer Empire. Ayutthaya briefly governed from Angkor Wat, but soon abandoned it to the jungle.
Japanese Pilgrims at Angkor Wat
Around the fall of Angkor, many other temples of Angkor were abandoned to be swallowed by the jungle. Most notably is Ta Prohm, famous for the huge strangler fig trees growing over its walls. Angkor Wat fell into neglect, but it was not forgotten.
Inscriptions dating to the 17th century describe a community of about 1500 Japanese traders living alongside locals at Angkor Wat. They believed they had found the Buddhist garden Jetavana, located in India. As Japan was in self-imposed isolation from the outside world at this time, the Japanese communities eventually integrated with Khmer peoples. The most famous inhabitant was the pilgrim Ukondafu Kazufusa, who documented his celebration of Khmer New Year at Angkor Wat in 1632.
First Western Visitors to Angkor Wat
The first Western visitor to Angkor Wat was the Portugese friar António da Madalena, who visited Angkor Wat in 1586. He described the site in great detail, although his accounts were largely ignored and not recognised publicly until 1947.
In 1860, the French naturalist Henri Mouhot arrived at Angkor. Based in Bangkok for several years, he had been charting jungle regions in South East Asia through difficult terrain and conditions, collecting insects and recording new animal species. While exploring rivers in Cambodia, he came across Angkor Wat by chance. He made detailed sketches and wrote accounts of the temple in his notebook, comparing its grandeur to ancient Greek and Roman masterpieces, and even to the art of Michaelangelo.
While Mouhot certainly didn’t discover Angkor, his British partners at the Royal Geographical Society and the Zoological Society were keen to promote him as such. Mouhot died of malaria the following year, but his legacy was cemented; Angkor Wat was known to the wider world.
Cambodia became a protectorate of France in 1867. French interest in Angkor Wat skyrocketed when a life-sized replica was exhibited in the 1931 Paris Colonial Exhibition.
Angkor Wat Under the Cambodian Government
After Japanese occupation during WW2, Cambodia became independent in 1953. Restoration of Angkor Wat had been ongoing since the turn of the century, but everything halted during the Khmer Rouge regime. Khmer Rouge forces (who themselves used an image of Angkor Wat on their flag) even camped out on the site, taking apart wooden structures for their campfires. Bullet holes still remain on some parts of the temple. However, much more damage was caused by art thieves, who sawed the heads off many of the statues.
In 1992, Angkor Wat was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Today, it is Cambodia’s main tourist attraction, with an estimated 2 million tourists visiting each year. The temple is a source of national pride, appearing on the Cambodian flag, on Cambodian currency, and labels of the country’s best-selling beer, Angkor.
Layout of Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat Moat, Causeway and Outer Enclosure
The scale is Angkor Wat is colossal. It is arranged in a large rectangular shape, bordered by an impressive 190 metre (620 feet) wide moat. The moat stretches out in a rectangle 1.5km x 1.3km (0.93 miles x 0.8 miles). The water, 4 metres (13 feet) deep, would have made a formidable obstacle for invading armies.
Within the moat is an enclosed area accessible by a main sandstone causeway and an earth embankment. An outer wall measures 1,024 metres (3,360 feet) x 802 metres (2,631 feet). Inside the outer wall is an area which houses all the structures of Angkor Wat. At each cardinal point (north, south, east and west) are pyramidal towers called gopuras.
The entire Angkor Wat complex occupies an area of 1,626 square kilometres (402 acres). With the temple structures in the centre, the surrounding land would have been occupied by wooden houses and buildings that made up the city. In its heyday, Angkor Wat may have had a population of half a million people, making it one of the largest cities in the world. Today, most of this area is now forest.
Angkor Wat Central Temple
The main temple structures are arranged into three raised tiers, with 4 main towers positioned on the corners of the second tier. The 5th central tower, higher than the others at 65 metres (213 feet), is positioned on the highest tier, and women are forbidden to climb it. The towers are shaped like lotus buds, giving Angkor Wat its recognisable silhouette. This formation (known as a quincunx) is modelled after Mount Meru, a sacred 5-peaked mountain from Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain cosmology. Historically, only royalty and select others could ascend to these upper levels.
Unusually for a Khmer temple of this kind, it faces west instead of east. The reason is likely because of its precise alignment of the temple with the spring equinox sunrise, and because of its association with Vishnu. With the waters of the most sparkling in the morning sun, viewing Angkor Wat at sunrise is one of the most beautiful ways to experience the temple.
Artwork of Angkor Wat
The central tiers of Angkor Wat are interconnected with covered galleries, many of which are intricately carved with sublime bas-relief friezes. The carvings describe Hindu narratives in great detail, typically with one epic on each wall. Other decorative elements were lost over time, such as gilded paint on some of the bas-reliefs, and wooden fixtures.
In addition, Angkor Wat has many impressive statues. One of the best preserved is Ta Reach, an eight-armed Vishnu statue located in the southern tower.
Hidden Wall Paintings of Angkor Wat
In 2010, Noel Hidalgo Tan, a volunteer archaeological researched with the Australian National University, noticed the the presence of pigments on the walls of the temple. When the photos were enhanced, it was discovered that these were actually beautifully detailed murals. Altogether over 200 paintings were catalogued.
The paint had faded over the centuries, but upon close examination in 2012, scenes of everyday life were revealed. With paintings of temples (perhaps Angkor Wat itself), fishing boats, animals (such as elephants and lions), deities, mounted riders, and musicians. It is still debated who painted the murals, with many experts hypothesizing that they were graffiti works left by visitors after the temple was abandoned in 1431.
Fun Facts About Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat was built with between 5 and 10 million sandstone blocks – more stone than all the Egyptian pyramids combined.
Angkor Wat has 6 mysterious spiral-shaped structures about 1km x 0.5km (0.62 miles x 0.31 miles) made of sand on the south side of the moat. Invisible under the overgrown forest, they were discovered with lidar technology. Scientists are still debating what they could have been.
In 1993, 7,650 tourists visited Angkor Wat. By 2018, there were 2.6 million visitors.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, Angkor Wat is the world’s largest religious structure.
Angkor Wat faces to the west, likely a dedication to the deity Vishnu, who is associated with the west.
Angkor Wat is one of only 6 buildings to feature on a national flag.
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Angkor Wat is irrefutably one of the greatest architectural achievements on earth. Wonderfully preserved and maintained, the historic site has a long and storied history that is a source of great national pride for the Cambodian people. With its wide moat, and steep towers rising out of the encroaching jungle, it is not surprising that Angkor Wat maintains its sense of mystery and adventure after so many centuries.
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