Angkor Wat, Siem reap

 

Watching the sunrise at Angkor Wat is an iconic travel experience , was ready to attempt an early morning jaunt to the temples. Most things that involve a 4am start, a torch and a dark jungle .

The sunrise trip to Angkor Wat is a road well travelled and the journey from Siem Reap to Angkor was filled with a steady stream of travellers all hoping to capture a magnificent sunrise over the temples .

Finally the sun began to rise and we were treated to some beautiful shades of blues and purples over Angkor Wat as the majestic temples were illuminated on the horizon . The popular sunrise watching spot is on the West Side of Angkor Wat and , a wall of cameras and people congregated around the lotus pond. Despite the fact that it is the world’s largest religious monument it never occurred to me how many people would actually show up for sunrise .

we were rewarded with a beautiful sky filled with red, purple and the classic Angkor Wat reflected in the Lotus Pond. This was the moment everyone had been waiting for and there were a lot of collective ooohs and aaahs from the crowd . A lot of camera flashes!

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Angkor Wat is a temple complex in Cambodia and the largest religious monument in the world. It was originally founded as a Hindu temple for the Khmer Empire, gradually transforming into a Buddhist temple toward the end of the 12th century .



It was built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century in Yaśodharapura , the Khmer Empire, as his state temple and eventual mausoleum. Breaking from the Shaiva tradition of previous kings, Angkor Wat was instead dedicated to Vishnu .

As the best-preserved temple at the site , it is the only one to have remained a significant religious center since its foundation . The temple is at the top of the high classical style of Khmer architecture . It has become a symbol of Cambodia , appearing on its national flag , and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors .

Angkor Wat combines two basic plans of Khmer temple architecture the temple mountain and the later galleried temple. It is designed to represent Mount Meru , home of the devas in Hindu mythology within a moat and an outer wall 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi) long are three rectangular galleries, each raised above the next .

At the centre of the temple stands a quincunx of 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 .

The modern name Angkor Wat means "Temple City" or "City of Temples" in Khmer Angkor , meaning "city" or "capital city" .

the Khmers could have built the temple , and mistakenly dated it to around the same era as Rome . The true history of Angkor Wat was pieced together only from stylistic and epigraphic evidence accumulated during the subsequent clearing and restoration work carried out across the whole Angkor site . There were no ordinary dwellings or houses or other signs of settlement including cooking utensils , weapons , or items of clothing usually found at ancient sites. Instead there is the evidence of the monuments themselves .