There is so much to say about Angkor Wat, the largest religious building in the world and just part of a huge temple complex which has put Cambodia on the map (who in turn put it on the flag) as the temple capital of Asia... and there are a lot of temples in Asia.
The Big Three are Angkor Wat, Bayon and Ta Phrom, but there are hundreds of other temples which are mediocre only in comparison. Any where else in the world they would be considered the main attraction (except perhaps if they were placed next to Macchu Picchu or the Pyramids). As magnificent as they are, the temples are only ruins of the capital of the ancient Khmer empire known as Angkor (hence Angkor Wat, 'wat' meaning temple), which had a population of one million when London was a town of fifty thousand. While the houses, public buildings and palaces of Angkor were constructed of wood, the right to live in stone structures was reserved for the gods.
There is so much to say in fact - descriptions, history and my experiences of individual temples - that I can't do it. Like the Taj Mahal I feel that nothing I say will do justice to he buildings themselves. So I'm going to stop here and leave you with a LOAD of pictures taken over my three day exploration of the complex.
The Big Three are Angkor Wat, Bayon and Ta Phrom, but there are hundreds of other temples which are mediocre only in comparison. Any where else in the world they would be considered the main attraction (except perhaps if they were placed next to Macchu Picchu or the Pyramids). As magnificent as they are, the temples are only ruins of the capital of the ancient Khmer empire known as Angkor (hence Angkor Wat, 'wat' meaning temple), which had a population of one million when London was a town of fifty thousand. While the houses, public buildings and palaces of Angkor were constructed of wood, the right to live in stone structures was reserved for the gods.
There is so much to say in fact - descriptions, history and my experiences of individual temples - that I can't do it. Like the Taj Mahal I feel that nothing I say will do justice to he buildings themselves. So I'm going to stop here and leave you with a LOAD of pictures taken over my three day exploration of the complex.
Above: Angkor Wat (unfortunatley covered in scaffolding)
Above: Crowds gathering to watch sunrise at Angkor Wat
Above: Hot air balloon over the gates of Angkor Wat
Above: Bayon - my favorite temple (Angkor Wat was actually a bit of a let down, maybe due to the scaffolding, the crowds and the lack of a magnificent sun-rise)
Above: Ta Phrom, aka Tomb Raider Temple
Above: More temples!
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