Breathtaking. That is one of the words that came to mind as we watched the sun rise over the world’s largest religious monument, Angkor Wat. While we didn’t have the most spectacular sunrise due to the morning clouds, it was still amazing to simply gaze at such an immense and beautiful piece of ancient architecture.

Built around 1150 by the Khmer King Suryavarman II, Angkor Wat sits on about 400 acres. Yes, 400 acres! We spent over half of a day wandering around its halls, pagodas, and outer grounds and still felt like we didn’t see much of it. The wat is full of beautifuly carved reliefs and inscriptions that have remained very well preserved over the last 800+ years, making it one of the most interesting temple sites to visit (as if it’s size wasn’t enough!)

While Angkor Wat is easily the most famous temple site at the ancient site of Angkor, it is certainly not the only one. There are dozens of temples within walking distance of one another and they all have a bit of their own flavor. Most of these temple sites were built at the height of the Khmer empire’s power, roughly 1100 – 1300 (the empire existed from 800-1400). One of the most powerful Khmer kings was Jayavarman VII, who built Angkor Thom, a city complex which contains some very impressive stone architecture. There were 3 main parts of Angkor Thom that stood out to us the most: the temple of Bayon, the Elephant Terrace, and the South Gate.

The Temple of Bayon, within Angkor Thom is spectacular. It consists of 54 different towers, all of which are ringed with massive stone faces. These stone faces are in the range of 10-20 feet in height and are built using many large stone blocks giving them a stone mosaic look. Absolutely amazing.

Also within the Angkor Thom complex is the elephant terrace, where King Jayavarman VII would view his troops as they trained. The terrace has a wall of stone about 400-600 feet long and 10 feet high full of stone carvings depicting Khmer soldiers atop war elephants. Some scenes show the Khmer fighting other soldiers, others show them hunting buffalo or crocodiles. It was interesting to try and figure out what was being portrayed in all of the different carvings!

When we left the Angkor Thom site, we exited out through the South Gate. This was one of the 4 main entrances to the Angkor Thom complex.

While Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom were our favorite temple sites at Angkor, there were a few others that caught our eye as well:

Ta Som

East Mebon

While we thoroughly enjoyed the time we had exploring the temples of Angkor, we do have one regret. We somehow missed the temple of Ta Phrom. Ta Phrom is famous for the sheer number of jungle trees growing in, around, and through it. So famous that movies have been filmed there (Tomb Raider is one example). We don’t know how we managed to miss this temple, but I guess it gives us a reason to go back!