China has the Great Wall and the Terracotta Warriors, India has the Taj Mahal and Cambodia has Angkor Wat. All are UNESCO World Heritage Sites and each site draws millions of visitors from around the world every year. The Terracotta Warriors defend the tomb of the 1st Emperor of China, while the Taj Mahal is the burial place of Mumtaz Mahal, the wife of Shah Jahan. What is Angkor Wat?
Angkor Wat (and associated temples) is one of the largest religious sites on the planet (if not the largest) covering an area of about 400 square kilometres. It is also one of the most important archaeological sites in South-East Asia. The Angkor Archaeological Park includes the remains of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire, from the 9th to the 15th century. Angkor Wat is just one of many temples. Angkor Thom is also amazing and has the Bayon Temple with its outstanding sculptural decorations.
Originally a Hindu temple when it was first started Angkor Wat gradually shifted from Hindu to Buddhist use. There is so much history associated with the site it is tough to keep it all straight (at least for me!).
As you can imagine many of the temples have fallen into disrepair (which is to be expected as many are over 1000 years old) yet restoration work has been underway for many years. Cambodia is a poor country and would never be able to fund the restoration on its own, but many countries around the world (eg. Czech Republic, Japan, France) have contributed funds for the work to continue.
You can spend days visiting all of the temples and because they are so spread out a tuk tuk is recommended although some visitors do explore by bicycle (I went the tuk tuk route).
On my last day of temple exploring I walked up to the top of the 'mountain' to get to Phnom Bakheng to watch the sunset. Unfortunately a large cloud got in the way of the setting sun. Oh well, there’s always next time!
