Angkor Wat is a large Buddhist temple complex and the biggest religious site in the world. It is located on a land area of 162.6 hectares within the ancient city of Angkor. The temple was built between 1113 and 1150 CE during the rule of King Suryavarman II as a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Vishnu. Beginning in the late 13th century, the temple was slowly changed into a Buddhist place of worship and has remained an active religious site for many centuries. Angkor Wat is known for its large size, detailed carvings, and architectural style typical of Khmer buildings. Unlike most other temples in the Angkor area, it faces west. It is a symbol of Cambodia and appears on the country's national flag.
The temple was built by King Suryavarman II in Yaśodharapura, the capital of the Khmer Empire, as a state temple and is believed to have been his tomb. Its design combines two types of Khmer temple structures: the temple-mountain and the galleried temple. The layout is often seen as a representation of Mount Meru, a mountain important in both Hindu and Buddhist beliefs. The temple is surrounded by a wide moat and enclosed by a wall. Inside, three large halls rise in levels toward a central group of five towers.
From the late 13th century onward, Angkor Wat became mainly connected with Theravāda Buddhism. The site was adapted for Buddhist worship and has been used continuously for religious purposes, which helped protect it and kept its role as an important religious, cultural, and national symbol of Cambodia.
The temple was not used for many years before being restored in the 20th century with help from international groups. The restoration was managed by the International Coordinating Committee for the Safeguarding and Development of the Historic Site of Angkor (ICC-Angkor), created in 1993 under UNESCO. Major contributors included France, Japan, India, Germany, the United States, South Korea, China, and Italy.
Angkor Wat is admired for its grand and balanced architecture, its detailed carvings, and the carved figures on its walls. The Angkor area was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992. Angkor Wat is a major tourist attraction and receives more than 2.5 million visitors each year.
Etymology
The modern name Angkor Wat means "Temple City" or "City of Temples" in the Khmer language. The word "Angkor" comes from the Khmer word "nokor," which means "city" or "capital city." This word is related to the Sanskrit/Pali word "nagara," meaning "city." The word "Wat" means "temple grounds" and comes from the Sanskrit/Pali word "vāṭa," which means "enclosure." The original name of the temple was Vrah Viṣṇuloka or Parama Viṣṇuloka, meaning "the sacred dwelling of Vishnu." This name may also refer to Suryavarman II after his death, honoring his memory and showing respect for his achievements.
History
Angkor Wat was built by the Khmer king Suryavarman II, who ruled from 1113 to about 1150, in the early 12th century in Yaśodharapura, the capital of the Khmer Empire (now called Angkor). Construction began in 1122 and was finished in 1150. The idea to build the temple came from Divākarapaṇḍita, who lived from 1040 to about 1120. The temple was dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu, and its original designs were based on Hindu beliefs. It was built as the king’s main temple in the capital city. Historians once thought Angkor Wat was a “temple-city,” but newer studies suggest it had between 3,000 and 4,300 people living there. No ancient writings have been found that mention the temple’s original name, so it may have been called Vrah Viṣṇuloka, after the god Vishnu. Construction stopped after the king died, leaving some carvings unfinished.
In 1177, about 27 years after Suryavarman II died, Angkor was attacked by the Chams, the Khmer Empire’s enemies. Later, Jayavarman VII rebuilt the Khmer Empire and created a new capital at Angkor Thom, with the Bayon as the main temple. The Bayon was dedicated to Buddhism because Jayavarman VII’s wife, Indradevi, was a devoted Buddhist who encouraged him to convert. Over time, Angkor Wat also became a Buddhist site, with many Hindu carvings replaced by Buddhist art.
After becoming a Buddhist center in the late 12th century, Angkor Wat remained a place of worship for Buddhists until today. Chinese travelers Zhou Daguan and Zheng He visited Angkor Wat in the 13th and 14th centuries. Zheng He studied the temple’s design, which later influenced the Dabaoen Temple and Glazed Pagoda. Some archaeologists believe Angkor Wat was used as a defensive structure during this time, with features like blocked gateways and wall holes suggesting it might have been part of a fortress. These defenses were likely built alongside the defenses of Angkor Thom to protect against the Ayutthaya Empire. Even after the Khmer Empire fell to the Ayutthaya in 1431, Angkor Wat stayed inhabited, with records showing that its ponds were regularly maintained. Unlike other temples, Angkor Wat was not completely abandoned after the 16th century. Fourteen 17th-century inscriptions from the Angkor area mention Japanese Buddhist pilgrims who lived near the temple. One inscription notes that a Japanese man named Ukondayu Kazufusa celebrated the Khmer New Year at Angkor Wat in 1632. Some towers were also removed in the mid-1600s.
In the 16th century, Portuguese traders and missionaries found a large, seemingly abandoned stone city in northern Cambodia’s forests. This city included Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument, which stood out among the ruins. A Capuchin friar named António da Madalena visited the site in 1586 and shared his observations with Diogo do Couto, a Portuguese historian. Do Couto wrote that the temple, called Angar, had towers, decorations, and a moat with a single bridge guarded by stone tigers.
In 1860, French naturalist Henri Mouhot and missionary Charles-Émile Bouillevaux rediscovered Angkor Wat. Mouhot later described the temple in his writings, calling it “a rival to Solomon’s temple” and “grander than anything left by Greece or Rome.” His book, published in 1864, helped spread awareness of the site in the West. Around the same time, German anthropologist Adolf Bastian wrote about Angkor’s monuments in a six-volume work, though his books lacked drawings of the site.
France made Cambodia a protectorate in 1863 partly because of Angkor Wat and other Khmer monuments. This led to France invading Siam and helping Cambodia reclaim lands in the northwestern part of the country, including Siem Reap, Battambang, and Sisophon. Excavations at Angkor Wat found no signs of everyday life, such as homes, cooking tools, or clothing.
In the 20th century, efforts began to clear plants from the site and restore the temple. The Conservation d'Angkor, started by the École française d'Extrême-Orient in 1908, managed research, conservation, and restoration until the 1970s. Major work happened in the 1960s. Cambodia gained independence from France in 1953 and has controlled Angkor Wat since then.
Restoration was interrupted during the Cambodian Civil War when the Khmer Rouge took over in the 1970s and 1980s. Work stopped, and the Conservation d'Angkor was shut down in 1975. Khmer Rouge soldiers used wood from the temple for firewood, and fighting between Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese forces damaged some carvings. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, thieves stole parts of the temple, including sculptures. Angkor Wat also suffered from plant growth, fungi, ground movement, and theft, though war damage was less than in other temples.
Between 1986 and 1992, the Archaeological Survey of India restored the temple because France did not recognize Cambodia’s government at the time. Some people criticized both French and Indian restoration work for damaging the stone with chemicals and cement.
In 1992, Angkor Wat was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was also added to UNESCO’s World Heritage in Danger list (later removed in 2004) after appeals by Norodom Sihanouk and others for help.
Architecture
Angkor Wat is a large Buddhist temple complex. It is located in the ancient Khmer capital city of Angkor and covers an area of 162.6 hectares (1,626,000 square meters or 402 acres). It is recognized by Guinness World Records as the largest religious structure in the world.
Angkor Wat combines two architectural styles: the temple mountain, which was common for state temples in the Khmer Empire, and concentric galleries, which were inspired by Hindu religious beliefs. The temple also had practical uses for the Khmer Empire. Its dam and moats helped connect to the city’s water system and stored water during the dry season after the monsoon rains. Some features of the temple suggest it had a connection to the sky. For example, the temple is aligned east to west, and certain towers appear at the exact position of the sun during the spring equinox. The main tower of the temple aligns with the sunrise on the spring equinox. The temple represents Mount Meru, a sacred mountain in Hindu mythology. The central group of five towers symbolizes the five peaks of Mount Meru, while the walls and moat represent the surrounding mountains and ocean. Only the lowest level of the temple was accessible to ordinary people, while higher areas were reserved for religious figures.
Most Khmer temples face east, but Angkor Wat faces west. This has led some scholars, such as Maurice Glaize and George Coedès, to believe that the temple was built as a funerary site for King Suryavarman II. Evidence includes the direction of the bas-reliefs, which move counter-clockwise, a pattern used in Hindu funeral rituals. Archaeologist Charles Higham also found a possible funerary jar near the central tower. However, others argue that the westward alignment may be because the temple was dedicated to Vishnu, a Hindu god associated with the west.
Researcher Eleanor Mannikka suggests that the temple’s design reflects a peaceful era under King Suryavarman II. She believes the temple’s measurements and decorations were meant to show the king’s divine right to rule and honor the gods. Her ideas have been met with both interest and doubt by scholars. The oldest surviving map of Angkor Wat dates to 1715 and was created by Fujiwara Tadayoshi. It is now stored in a museum in Japan.
Angkor Wat is the best example of the Angkor Wat style, a classic form of Khmer architecture. Key features include pointed, lotus-shaped towers; wide passageways with half-galleries; and cruciform terraces along the temple’s main axis. Decorative elements include devatas (apsaras), bas-reliefs, and carvings of stories and scenes. The statues in Angkor Wat are more static than earlier works. Some original details, like gilded stucco and wooden panels, have been lost over time due to looting and weathering.
The temple is praised for its balanced design. Maurice Glaize described it as a work of "classic perfection" with harmonious proportions. Some scholars, like Jacques Dumarçay, believe the layout of the temple may have been influenced by Chinese architecture, while others think it reflects Southeast Asian cosmology and the mandala shape.
The temple is surrounded by an outer wall that is 1,024 meters long and 802 meters wide, with a 4.5-meter-high wall. It is encircled by a 30-meter-wide open area and a moat 190 meters wide and over 5 kilometers long. The moat stretches 1.5 kilometers from east to west and 1.3 kilometers from north to south. The main entrance is a sandstone causeway on the west side, which may have replaced an earlier wooden bridge. Each side of the temple has a Gopuram (a tower-like structure), with the western one being the largest and partially ruined.
Under the southern tower is a statue called Ta Reach, originally a statue of Vishnu. Galleries connect the towers, with two additional entrances on either side of the Gopuram, known as "elephant gates" because they are large enough for elephants to pass through. These galleries have square pillars on the outer side and walls on the inner side. The ceiling is decorated with lotus-shaped patterns. The western wall has carvings of dancing figures, while the eastern wall has windows with balusters and carvings of animals and devatas.
The outer wall encloses an area of 203 acres (82 hectares), which originally included homes and the royal palace. These structures were made of wood and other perishable materials, so little remains except for the outlines of streets. A 350-meter causeway connects the western Gopuram to the temple, with naga-shaped balustrades and six sets of steps. Each side of the causeway has a library with entrances at each cardinal direction and a pond between the library and the temple. These ponds and the cruciform terrace with lions were added later.
The temple sits on a raised terrace inside the walled enclosure. It has three rectangular galleries that rise to a central tower, with each level higher than the last. The inner galleries have four large towers at their corners, surrounding a fifth, taller tower. This pattern, called a quincunx, represents the five peaks of Mount Meru. Because the temple faces west, these features are positioned to the east.
Symbolism and popular culture
Because of the worldwide interest it has gained and the many people who visit it, Angkor Wat has become a well-known image linked to Cambodia. In this way, it has become a symbol of the country itself. A drawing of Angkor Wat has been part of Cambodia's national flag since the first version was introduced in 1863.
From a historical and cultural viewpoint, however, Angkor Wat did not become a symbol of national pride on its own. Instead, it became part of a larger political and cultural process connected to French colonial history. Angkor Wat gained attention in Europe when a pavilion representing the French protectorate of Cambodia, which was part of French Indochina, created a life-size replica of the temple. This replica was displayed at French colonial and international exhibitions in Paris and Marseille between 1889 and 1937. The replica was shown in the plaster cast museum of Louis Delaporte, called the musée Indo-chinois, which was located in the Trocadero Palace in Paris from around 1880 until the mid-1920s.
Myths
Myths connected to Angkor Wat show the influence of Buddhist traditions that grew in Cambodia over many years. By the 1600s and 1700s, Theravada Buddhism became the main religion in the area, leading to a slow change in how the monument was viewed. The temple was gradually seen less as a Hindu place of worship and more as a sacred Buddhist site. During this time, Buddhist beliefs changed local stories about the temple’s purpose and meaning, and new myths linked the structure to Buddhist ideas about the universe.
In the 1700s, Japanese travelers visiting Southeast Asia recognized Angkor Wat as Jetavana, a garden where the Buddha is said to have lived in ancient India. Old Japanese writings and maps show the site as a holy Buddhist place, and some describe it as a location visited or lived in by the Buddha. This idea connected Angkor Wat to religious journeys in the region and helped create Buddhist myths about the monument.
Cambodian traditions also changed how Angkor Wat was understood within Buddhist beliefs. Stories say the temple is a place for gaining spiritual merit, meditation, and reaching higher spiritual levels. Some myths claim the temple’s carvings, which show Hindu stories, hide Buddhist teachings. These beliefs helped people see the temple as a universal holy place rather than tied to one religion.
By the 1700s and 1800s, evidence shows Buddhist monks lived at Angkor Wat, building shrines, carving images of the Buddha, and performing rituals there. Myths from this time describe the temple as an active monastery protected by spiritual beings like nāgas and devas.
Modern research shows that the religious change at Angkor Wat happened slowly over centuries, with changes to the temple’s structure and rituals. These changes reflect the lasting influence of Buddhist practices and beliefs on how the monument is understood.
Today, Buddhism continues to shape how both people and scholars view Angkor Wat. The temple is widely seen as a symbol of Cambodia’s Buddhist heritage and remains an important part of the country’s modern cultural and religious identity.
Tourism
Since the 1990s, Angkor Wat has become a major tourist destination. In 1993, only 7,650 visitors came to the site. By 2004, government records showed that 561,000 foreign visitors arrived in Siem Reap province, which was about 50% of all foreign tourists in Cambodia. The number of visitors reached over 1 million in 2007 and more than 2 million by 2012. In 2013, Angkor Wat received over 2 million foreign tourists, and by 2018, the number had grown to 2.6 million.
SOKIMEX managed the site from 1990 to 2016, renting it from the Cambodian government. The large number of visitors has caused problems, such as graffiti on the walls. To help protect the site, ropes and wooden steps were added to protect the carvings and floors. Tourism also provides money for maintenance. In 2000, about 28% of ticket sales at the entire Angkor site were used for temple upkeep. However, most of the work is done by teams supported by foreign governments, not by Cambodian officials.
Because tourism at Angkor Wat has grown so much, UNESCO and its International Co-ordinating Committee for the Safeguarding and Development of the Historic Site of Angkor (ICC), along with representatives from the Royal Government and APSARA, held meetings to discuss "cultural tourism." These discussions focused on providing high-quality services for tourists and helping the Cambodian government earn money while protecting Cambodian culture. In 2001, this idea led to the plan for the "Angkor Tourist City," which would include traditional Khmer-style buildings, tourist facilities, and luxury hotels to accommodate many visitors.
Developing large tourist accommodations has raised concerns from APSARA and the ICC. They say past projects ignored building rules and could harm the area’s landscape. These large projects also risk damaging the water, sewage, and electricity systems in nearby towns. High levels of tourism and the need for more infrastructure have affected the underground water levels, which could weaken the temples’ structures. Local people in Siem Reap have also expressed worry that their town’s character has been harmed by tourism. Since the local culture is important for projects like the Angkor Tourist City, local leaders continue to discuss how to grow tourism without losing cultural values. At the ASEAN Tourism Forum in 2012, it was decided that Borobudur and Angkor Wat would become sister sites and sister provinces.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused travel restrictions worldwide, greatly reducing tourism in Cambodia. As a result, Angkor Wat became nearly empty. The site reopened to international visitors in late 2021, but by the end of 2022, only 280,000 tourists visited, compared to 2.6 million in 2018. In 2023, the number of visitors increased, reaching over 400,000 by late July. In mid-2024, tourists reenacting the 2011 game series Temple Run for social media faced criticism from conservationists. These actions were said to risk damaging the site’s structures and carvings and were considered culturally insensitive. Because of this, tourism at Angkor Wat has become controversial. Some people have even called for the site to close as a tourist attraction, arguing that its status as a World Heritage Site threatens the lives of nearby villages and individuals whose heritage depends on the historical integrity of Angkor Wat.