Angkor Wat

We went straight to Angkor Wat this morning, antsy and excited to see the famous 'lost temple' complex.  A thousand years ago, Angkor was one of the largest cities in the world, with more than a million people living in the Capitol of the large and successful military state of the Khmer kingdom.  There are a number of temple complexes, covering hundreds of acres, of which Angkor Wat is the largest and most famous.  These temples were built by a Hindu king in honor of Vishnu, so the style is very Indian, with large conical stupas towering above the grounds.  The main temple is surrounded by a human-made reservoir that functions as a moat.  It's huge and deep.  There are two wntrances, the back door, for walking in, and the front door, for arriving by elephant. We came in the back gate.

The walls are covered in carvings depicting great battles or scenes from everyday largess in the royal life.  There are also dancing women carved in almost every nook and cranny.  

There are courtyards inside of courtyards once you enter the grounds.  Each is elevated from the last.  This temple was built up on an artificial hill made from the soil dug from the reservoir.  At some points the stairs are very steep.

We climbed to the top layer, where the four main stupas are open from below.  This was the most important--and holiest part of the temple.  This is where the god was called down to meet the king.  There is a small shrine there now, the original having long been gone.   The view was amazing!  We could see the jungle grown up green all around us, and the lovely water from the reservoir, and the tops of other nearby temes.  

A hundred years after Angkor Wat was built, a later King changed it to a Buddhist temple.  A number of Buddha statues, large and small, were brought in.  It's still a working Buddhist yeme to this day, and we saw a few monks among the visitors.  During the rule of the Khmer Rouge, the temple was used as a mitary barracks.  Most of the Buddha statues had their heads cut off with chain saws.  There are bullet holes visible in some of the walls.

It was hot, so hot today.  And the humidity was intense.  It was such a wonderful experience to see Angkor Wat but it was also challenging in the heat with all the stairs.  It was worth it.