Scenes from Angkor Wat

I'm currently on a four-day trip to Cambodia and like any typical traveler to this country, Angkor topped my list of destinations to visit. Angkor is a region that was inhabited by the Khmer empire, which reigned over nearly all of Southeast Asia from the 9th to the 14th century. Spanning an area as large as Manhattan, Angkor has over a thousand temples, all constructed by stone. Dominant among these temples is Angkor Wat, the largest single religious monument in the world dedicated to Buddhism.


Walking toward the complex, you feel its impressiveness despite its seemingly crumbling walls. I can't imagine the awe it must have imposed on visitors at the height of its glory.
Angkor Wat from above

Angkor Wat is surrounded by a man-made moat that was once filled with crocodiles to fend off enemies, namely the Vietnamese, with whom the Khmer were often at war. The causeway leading toward the complex is two football fields long.

Angkor Wat was inspired by Hinduism, the religion brought over by Indian traders. The king who built Angkor Wat wanted to create a home of gods, similar to one found in Hinduism. Even though Angkor Wat came to be a site dedicated to Buddhism, its architecture represents a fusion of these two religions. The towers are designed to replicate closed lotus flowers, which holds symbolic meaning in both religions.
Angkor Wat is a maze of long corridors. Every year on Buddha's birthday, thousands of monks make a pilgrimage to Angkor Wat and walk through these corridors. I was told it is a sight to see, with the gold of monks' robes contrasting the dark color of the stone walls as they walk through the corridors and meditate.
The Khmer empire were master stone carvers. All the temples at Angkor have intricate carvings on the wall, some better preserved than others. These carvings are very well preserved. Again, to imagine it at the height of its glory--all these intricate carvings lined every inch of the walls.
You will find Apsara dancers all over ancient Khmer architecture. Apsaras were believed to be beautiful angels, able to take on many forms. In ancient times, beautiful girls were pulled from throughout the kingdom to learn the Apsara dance form, performed topless for the king. Apsara traditional dancing (no longer topless) is one of the last links from the ancient kingdom that Cambodians have been able to preserve.

A library where religious scrolls were once kept. None of these scrolls survived hundreds of years in the jungle weather. Luckily, much religious writing is still preserved on the walls of Angkor Wat and scholars have been able to decipher these writings to understand life in the Khmer empire.

The stairs leading up the holy temple is very steep and narrow. They are scary to climb and even scarier to descend. In addition to Angkor Wat, I visited Angkor Thom (where a scene of Tomb Raider was filmed) and Bayon.
Bayon is famous for the stone faces that decorate the complex. These faces are a composite of the Khmer king who built Bayon and Buddha's compassionate face.
I was only able to spend a few hours at Angkor. There was just so much to see that even as I was touring the area, I was already planning my next trip there. Every temple is unique in its architecture and history that a second, even third or fourth trip is necessary. Often, I go to tourist attractions and leave thinking, "That was it?" but this was not the case at Angkor. I was awestruck by vastness of Angkor and the beauty of the temples. Hopefully, one day I can return again to hop across fallen stone architecture and wander the corridors of this amazing ancient empire.