Angkor Wat

In the early 12th century, during the reign of King Suryavarman II, Khmer Empire has reached its peak period with endless wealth and land. The King decided to built a temple dedicated to God Vishnu and later as his mausoleum. Angkor Wat is the largest Hindu temple in the world that was first dedicated to Vishnu then later to Buddha when King Jayavarman VII embrace Buddhism.

Its architecture was based on Khmer famous architecture plan of Temple Mountain and Galleried Temple. Temple Mountain is a concept of multiple levels of temples upon temples, pyramids upon pyramids with the most sacred sanctuary for God was built as the top most level of pyramid. Hence, when you enter the Wat, you are actually entering the base most level of the structure, but each time you go deeper, you also climb higher until you reach the centre of the temple, you will be seeing the top most pyramid in the Wat.

Woke up 4am in the morning just to reach on time for Angor Wat's sun rise....

Can you believe that this fella already passed his 20 years of age?~

20 USD for 1 day entry ticket, you can buy up to 1 week ticket~ Look pissed, the camera hates me~

Can't believe so many was willing to wake up so damn early for the sun rise~ Yawn~

Ok....its totally worth it~

Camwhoring time~

The building behind was a library~ amazing eh?~

Imagine how magnificent it used to be back then, when all these structures and railings are still in place~Awesome~

This is an example of Galleried Temple......look at all these carvings~

Held a close resemblance to those Egyptian Pyramid carving we saw in National Geographic~

We have came out of the first level of galleried temple, now heading to the second level in the middle~

The outermost of the second level was also built on the concept of Gallery Temple

LOL!

Here is the inner most level..look at the steps!

Phew~ Jelly leg.....

Finally, the tallest Pyramid in Angkor Wat~ Suppose to be the most sacred sanctuary for Gods~

Can't imagine how great it was when first built......No wonder it was listed as the Seven Wonders.....Totally breathtaking.....

The front temple of the first level~ I guess this was full with water back then~ Tsk tsk~ They really have a sense for grandiosity~ All these great civilization~~~

When it was discovered by a French journalist in the 19th century, it was in a pretty bad shape(although considered relatively well preserved compare with other great structures around the parameter)

Since then, effort has been taken to restore Angkor Wat to its best.....This path was actually rebuilt as the original had sank in and collapsed~

There are alot more such great structures in this area now collectively known as Angkor Archeological Park. However, Angkor Wat was one of the most well preserved structures here~ Stay tune for more~

For more illustration, kindly log on to my Facebook pictures~