Another day. Another UNESCO World Heritage site.
It was beyond worth it to get up at 4:15 this morning to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat. It is a truly amazing place on par or even surpassing such things as Machu Picchu, St. Peter's Basilica, the Great Pyramids and Tikal.
The first thing you notice is the sheer size of it. Arguably the world's largest religious monument, the Angkor Wat site is 402 acres. To put that into perspective, Central Park is 840 acres and Vatican City is 110 acres.
Here's an aerial view
The next thing you notice is the architecture style that is unique to this area of the world.
Built as a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu, the temple has 9 towers shaped like lotus buds with the center section containing a quincunx of towers. Like other Hindu temples, it is meant to represent Mount Meru, the home of the Gods.
During the height of the Khmer Empire, the temple would have been painted and the towers covered in gold. Here is an artist's educated guess
The inside would also have been painted. You can still see some color.
Construction on Angkor Wat started in the 1100s and continued for 37 years until the death of Suryavarman II. After the King's death, construction stopped. While the temple structure was complete, many of the bas reliefs adorning the internal walls are not complete.
At the end of the 12th century and after various wars in the region, the Khmer Empire shifted back to Buddhism and Angkor Wat became a Buddhist temple and continues as that to today. Unlike other temples in the area, Angkor Wat was never completely abandoned but, by the 16th century, it was mostly ignored. The surrounding moat kept the encroaching jungle back a bit but it was still covered in a lot of vegetation by the time the French arrived in the 19th century.
I find it fascinating that Angkor Wat is not more well known. For example, it is not listed on any of the modern wonders of the world lists. I wonder if some of this is due to the modern brutal history of Cambodia.
Tonight we visit some villages and tomorrow we leave for Vietnam.
It was beyond worth it to get up at 4:15 this morning to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat. It is a truly amazing place on par or even surpassing such things as Machu Picchu, St. Peter's Basilica, the Great Pyramids and Tikal.
The first thing you notice is the sheer size of it. Arguably the world's largest religious monument, the Angkor Wat site is 402 acres. To put that into perspective, Central Park is 840 acres and Vatican City is 110 acres.
Here's an aerial view
The next thing you notice is the architecture style that is unique to this area of the world.
During the height of the Khmer Empire, the temple would have been painted and the towers covered in gold. Here is an artist's educated guess
The inside would also have been painted. You can still see some color.
Construction on Angkor Wat started in the 1100s and continued for 37 years until the death of Suryavarman II. After the King's death, construction stopped. While the temple structure was complete, many of the bas reliefs adorning the internal walls are not complete.
At the end of the 12th century and after various wars in the region, the Khmer Empire shifted back to Buddhism and Angkor Wat became a Buddhist temple and continues as that to today. Unlike other temples in the area, Angkor Wat was never completely abandoned but, by the 16th century, it was mostly ignored. The surrounding moat kept the encroaching jungle back a bit but it was still covered in a lot of vegetation by the time the French arrived in the 19th century.
I find it fascinating that Angkor Wat is not more well known. For example, it is not listed on any of the modern wonders of the world lists. I wonder if some of this is due to the modern brutal history of Cambodia.
Tonight we visit some villages and tomorrow we leave for Vietnam.
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