Angkor Wat.

During our stay at Siem Reap we visited the temples of Angkor Wat 3 times to take in their majestic beauty, awesome size and incredible age.  Our first visit we were lucky to share with Gail and Peter on a perfect sun shiny day. Most of our photos were taken on this visit.

We returned a second time after we found we all had many more questions unanswered about the history of Angkor. This visit was on an unbearably hot and muggy day which ended in a dramatic thunderstorm.

Our final visit was to catch the radiance of an Angkor sunset.
We found out quite by luck that we were in Angkor on the exact day of the vernal equinox this year.
On this day in March, the temple of Angkor Wat features solar alignments in which the Sun appears to rise out of its central tower from an observation point located at the western end of the long causeway that leads up to the temple gates.

I can't claim to have taken this photo as I was never up at 5am on the vernal equinox.

At breakfast before our second visit we wrote out some questions of what we wanted to find out about Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples.

We found the answers to our questions from reading notice boards around the site, asking the guide who showed us around, a book we bought called ‘Ancient Angkor’ by M. Freeman and C. Jacques, the July 2009 issue of National Geographic, various internet sites (in particular Wikipedia) and from our Lonely Planet Guide.

Where is Angkor Wat and how big is it?

Angkor Wat is the largest of a series of temples built in the Angkor region.  Generally when foreigners mention Angkor Wat they refer to the overall complex of temples in the Angkor region.

The ruins of Angkor are located amid forests and farmland to the north of the Great Lake (Tonlé Sap) and south of the Kulen Hills, near modern-day Siem Reap (13°24′N, 103°51′E), and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1992.

Angkor is a region of Cambodia that served as the seat of the Khmer Empire, which flourished from approximately the 9th to 13th centuries.  It is spread over an area of approximately 400 sq km, including the surrounding forest. Although its population remains a topic of research and debate, newly identified agricultural systems in the Angkor area may have supported up to one million people.

What does Angkor Wat mean?

The modern name, Angkor Wat, means "City Temple".
Angkor comes from the Sanskrit word  नगर  nagara meaning capital or city.
Wat is the Khmer word for temple.

Why was it built?

Angkor Wat was built for King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. Surrounding temples were built for previous and successive kings.

  

When did they start building?

The actual temple of Angkor Wat is the largest and the most elaborate of the city's temples. It is the world's largest religious monument.  It was built in the early 12^th century (between 1113 and 1150) with later additions.

The Angkorian period began in AD 802, when the Khmer Hindu monarch Jayavarman II declared himself a "universal monarch" and "god-king", until 1431, when Ayutthayan invaders sacked the Khmer capital, causing its population to migrate south to the area of Phnom Penh. During this period of about 550 years the entire city of Angkor was built so that would mean they started building in 802 AD

Did part of it get lost in time?

At the fall of the Khmer Empire in 1431 many temples were destroyed and its inhabitants were driven to the south. From then on Angkor was abandoned and Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom were left to ruin. It was not until 22nd January 1860, that a French scholar discovered the past glory of Angkor. He read about Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom in a book titled Cial Envoy named Chou Ta-Kuan. At the time of the discovery, there were more than 600 tall temples and other structures at Angkor Wat.

What type of tree grows through some of the temple ruins?
Many of the pictures of Angkor show the temple Ta Phrohm with its tree roots growing through the stone work. This is also the site of the movie 'Tomb Raider' with Angelina Jolie. We enjoyed exploring this temple and discovering the echo chamber.

Tetrameles nudiflora is a species of plant in the Tetramelaceae family. It is found in Queensland (Australia), Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam. It is the only species in its genus Tetrameles.

Many of them have grown to immense proportions of height and width. The common name for this tree in Cambodia is the Spong Tree. It is regarded as a weed as it provides no benefit or produce. The wood is unusable.

What does ‘Apsara’ mean?

Apsaras are beautiful, supernatural women. They are youthful and elegant, and proficient in the art of dancing.

Apsaras represent an important motif in the stone bas-reliefs of the Angkorian temples in Cambodia. In harmony with the Indian association of dance with apsaras, Khmer female figures that are dancing or are poised to dance are considered apsaras; female figures, depicted individually or in groups, who are standing still and facing forward in the manner of temple guardians or custodians are called devatas.

We all loved spending time at Angkor.
Maisy enjoyed making up stories and imagining how the people lived here. She questioned so many of the structures asking what they were used for and when we couldn't find out the truth she was always willing to offer an elaborate explanation.
Charlotte loved the carvings and bas reliefs, especially the apsaras and even the battle scenes. She took crayons and paper to do crayon rubbings of some of the images. The large bayon faces were her favourites and she bought a small painting of one from the markets.
Paul could not get enough of the ruins and exploring the crumbled pieces, searching for the lost gems and finding intricate pieces to hold and know that a craftsman had carved it a thousand years ago.
I loved Angkor Thom and walking through the dark inner chambers. The haunting peacefulness and sense of age and wonder were such incredible feelings, I did not want to leave.
The temples of Angkor, and the Cambodian people impressed us so much. We savored our 8 day stay here. It was a beautiful, relaxing and spiritual place to be.

We stayed at the most perfect little hotel / resort just out of the main town of Siem Reap. The surroundings were tranquil and perfectly manicured, the staff blended in with the scenery and then just appeared as soon as you wanted something. The price was unbelievably low and then they offered us a free 2 hour massage each on the day we left.

http://www.koolhotel.com/

MysteriousLee