Angkor Wat

Our plan was to do an efficient tour of Angkor Wat and three smaller temples, so we booked a car through Klook for the day but as Doug had a bit of a GI upset in the night again, we limited our visit to the two main temples leaving the hotel at 0830 hrs and returning about 1500 hrs which was long enough given the high temperature; Doug's tummy trouble settled and was not an issue.

Angkor Wat is a Hindu-Buddhist temple and The Guinness World Records considers it as the largest religious structure in the world. It was originally constructed as a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Vishnu for the Khmer Empire by King Suryavarman II during the 12th century, it was gradually transformed into a Buddhist temple towards the end of the century; as such, it is also described as a "Hindu-Buddhist" temple and has been in use by local followers even after Angkor was overtaken by jungle and then "discovered" by a Portuguese friar in 1586 and then a French explorer in the 1840s.It is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the devas in Hindu mythology: within a moat more than 5 kilometers long and an outer wall 3.6 kilometers long are three rectangular galleries, each raised above the next. At the centre of the temple stands five towers. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west; scholars are divided as to the significance of this. The temple is admired for the grandeur and harmony of the architecture, its extensive bas-reliefs, and for the numerous devatas adorning its walls.Read more