In Pictures: the Temples of Angkor, Cambodia

Girl at sunrise walking along the moat surrounding the world's largest religious monument, Angkor Wat.

Centuries ago, Cambodia was a great power and ruled over territory stretching from Vietnam to the Malay Peninsula.  The empire's center was Angkor, a city that at its peak held a population estimated at one million people -- twenty times larger than London at the time.  Between the 9th and 13th centuries, Cambodia constructed a vast temple complex at Angkor.

The empire crumbled in the 15th century.  Today Cambodia is an impoverished, troubled nation, still in many ways gutted from the trauma of years of violence.  An estimated 100,000 Cambodian civilians were killed by U.S. bombing in the early 1970s, but the greatest slaughter came in the late 1970s during the reign of the Khmer Rouge.  From 1975 to 1979, the Khmer Rouge was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1,700,000 Cambodians -- 21 percent of the country's population.

Cambodia's recent history is too painful for many of its citizens to talk about.  But Cambodians find pride in the temples of Angkor.  Today the hundreds of buildings are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The site is free to Cambodians; for foreigners the cost is $20 for a one-day pass, or $40 dollars for a three-day pass.

Below are pictures taken the day I rented a bike and bought a one-day pass...

The temple complex is gigantic, and not all of it can be adequately covered in one day.  But the highlights are doable so long as you drink lots of water and don't mind sweating.  I passed by Angkor Wat after taking a photo of the girl walking along the moat, and would return to it in the late afternoon.  The temple I would first visit was The Banyon, two miles or so up the road from Angkor Wat.

The Banyon is located inside Angkor Thom, a fortified city -- its walls stretch 12 km around -- built at the end of the 12th century by Angkor's greatest king, Jayavarman VII, who ruled from 1181 to 1219.  This is the south entrance to Angkor Thom.

One of 216 faces of Avalokiteshvara in the Bayon

A Buddhist monk visiting the Bayon

From the Bayon I biked to Ta Prohm, where the jungle has been allowed to take over the structure.  I read that according to inscriptions found at the site, 80,000 people were needed to maintain the building.

Without maintanence, the jungle moved in.  Here, a root crawls over a roof.

I visited several other temples before circling back toward Angkor Wat.  I will blame the intense heat on why I am not sure of the name of this temple, where a woman sold incense.  It was either Preah Khan or Preah Neak Pean.

Late in the afternoon I returned to Angkor Wat, the largest religious structure in the world, built by Suryavarman II.  He ruled from 1112 to 1152.

A tourist and monk in Angkor Wat

Very steep stairs leading to the top

View from the top

One of many hallways

Apsara - celestial beauties common in Khmer architecture

A monk resting in the shade atop Angkor Wat

The image of Angkor Wat is seen throughout Cambodia - on the national flag, beer advertisements, currency, etc....

Here it is on a bumper sticker in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital.

Here on a poster advertising the national beer

And in a twist that King Suryavarman II probably wouldn't have envisioned, his temple is even used to sell 21st century cigarettes.

TO READ ABOUT MY MORE SERIOUS REFLECTIONS ON CAMBODIA, GO TO "Entering Cambodia with a Book (Reflections on Loung Ung's First They Killed My Father)"