Angkor

Angkor is once the capital of the Khmer empire in the 9-15 centuries. The scale of the city is striking 24 by 8 kilometers, here you can see many monuments of ancient art, for example: Angkor-Tkhom temples, Prea-Kan. Located about 240 km from the current capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh.

In fact, Angkor is a huge temple complex. During the reign of the Khmer Empire, houses were created mainly from wood, but wooden buildings from the rain and heat quickly collapsed. On the contrary, the temples were built of stone, for the construction of the walls surrounding the city used a shoe. Thanks to this, we can see many temples and fortress buildings in the city, in which over a million inhabitants lived during the prosperity of the Khmer empire, being the most populated city of those times.

Khmer usually built temples in honor of what event, such as the Preah-Kan temple, which was built to capture the victory of King Jayavarman VII over the trams. But some believe that the temple was built in honor of the king’s father. Nowadays, this magnificent temple has almost been cleared of the jungle, although huge trees grew on the temple just a couple of decades ago. During the reign of Jayavarman VII, he ordered the construction of another Ta-Prum temple in honor of his mother. Until recently, this temple was also covered with jungle, giving it special beauty and mystery.

The temples in Angkor were built without a cement mixture, the blocks were coupled in the form of a castle, which creates some difficulties in the restoration of temples. Before restoration, the temple is usually cleared of trees and other vegetation. It takes 4 months to remove a large tree. Then the temple is dismantled in parts and photographed, processed the data obtained on the computer and restored the original location of the blocks, replacing the destroyed areas.

Of all the temples of Angkor, Angkor-Wat, embodying the harmony and elegance of Asian culture, was best preserved. The temple was built for 30 years by order of Surijavarman II and after the death of the king became his mausoleum. Another attraction of the city is the Angkor-Tkhom fortress, and 2 km from it is the main Bayon temple with 54 towers, to the top of which are decorated with four guise of Buddha.

The formation of the temple complex took 4 centuries, starting with Prince Jayavarman II in 802 and ending with King Jayavarman VII in 1218, due to his death. According to another version, the construction of temples was stopped due to the fact that the sandstone ended. The rulers repeatedly increased the size of the city, since the city center was moved to the outskirts and began to erect a new city, and in the center they built a huge temple with five towers, depicting the center of the world - Mount Meru. As a result, Angkor became a colossal temple complex.

The power of the Khmer empire faded due to protracted wars, and in 1431 Angkor fell in front of the Siam troops. The city was abandoned and for several centuries it was completely hidden by tropical thickets, until in 1861 a naturalist from France, Henri Muo, found it.

Angkor can be reached from the city of Siem Reap, located only 5 km away. Siem Reap has an airport and hotels.