Angkor Wat

A carved stone lion statue stands on guard near a causeway over the huge water reservoir and moat surrounding Angkor Wat, the largest temple complex at the ancient Khmer capital of Angkor. (Learn more)

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Angkor was the royal capital of the Khmer empire from 802–1431 CE. Angkor’s long-lasting prosperity was based on the local abundance of three resources: water, fish, and the rice crops grown on soil nourished by annual rains, rivers, and controlled water reservoirs. The area’s unique source of water is the “Great Lake,” Tonlé Sap, which connects to the Mekong River and multiplies in size after the annual monsoon rains.

These natural resources allowed the Khmer population at Angkor to reach an estimated one million inhabitants. The “footprint” of Angkor’s stone monuments spans about eighteen by eight miles. During its peak, Angkor’s influence extended far, into what are now Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Burma, and Malaysia.

Water, with its life-giving and purifying qualities, is central to Khmer cosmology and all varieties of Hindu religion. The moats surrounding the temples of Angkor were envisioned as earthly models of the ocean that surrounds the world. A Sanskrit inscription compares the moats and reservoirs at Angkor with tributaries of the sacred Ganges River in India.

The ruler who oversaw the building of Angkor Wat was Suryavarman II. He ruled the Khmer empire by 1113 A.D. and began an ambitious building and imperial expansion project. Angkor Wat’s stone buildings, built within nested square walls, took over thirty years to complete.

The sandstone for Angkor’s temples was quarried from a mountain range some twenty miles northeast of the royal city. The task of transporting the stones would have been enormous, involving weights comparable to the construction of the larger pyramids in Egypt. The stones used were carefully “dressed” so that they would fit together perfectly without the use of mortar.

Despite their brilliance as stone carvers, the Khmer never mastered the engineering principles of staggered block joints and vaulted arches, as used by the Egyptians and Romans. Instead, the Khmer often piled stones directly on top of each other so the joints lined up, and later split apart easily. They also built “corbel” or “false” arches above walls, which did not distribute the stones’ weight well. Such building practices led to a more rapid crumbling of Khmer stone structures over time.

Ultimately, it was the ascending Siamese kingdom, based in what is now Thailand, that sacked Angkor in 1431 and ended the kingdom’s regional power.

Although the Angkor Wat site originally was dedicated to the Hindu God Vishnu and most of its images are from Hindu scriptures, the temple later became used as a shrine for Theravada Buddhists. Theravada Buddhism is the dominant religion among the contemporary Khmer people of Cambodia (as well as majorities in Thailand and Burma) although it is influenced by earlier local ideas and practices, as well as the Hindu antecedents of Buddhism.

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