60 Fun Facts About Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat is in which country?

Angkor Wat stands near Siem Reap in north-western Cambodia and is widely reckoned the largest religious monument in the world by area.

Which Khmer king commissioned Angkor Wat?

Suryavarman II, who took the throne in 1113, commissioned Angkor Wat; work stopped at his death around 1150, leaving some bas-reliefs unfinished.

Angkor Wat was originally dedicated to which Hindu god?

Its original name may have been Vrah Vishnuloka, 'the sacred dwelling of Vishnu'; the central statue was replaced by standing Buddhas centuries later.

What does the name Angkor Wat mean in Khmer?

Angkor Wat means 'City of Temples' (or 'Temple City'): 'Angkor' derives from Sanskrit nagara, 'city', and 'wat' from vata, 'enclosure', the Khmer word for a temple.

Which direction does Angkor Wat face, unusually for a Khmer temple?

Scholars such as Coedès took the orientation as evidence that it was meant as Suryavarman II's funerary temple, since west is associated with death and with Vishnu.

The layout of Angkor Wat is generally interpreted as a model of which mythical mountain?

Mount Meru, the cosmic mountain of Hindu and Buddhist cosmology: the five central towers stand for its peaks, the walls for the surrounding ranges and the moat for the ocean.

Besides sandstone, which stone was used for Angkor Wat's outer wall and hidden structural parts?

Laterite, a clay-rich rock that hardens on exposure to air, was used for the outer wall and concealed structural parts, while sandstone was reserved for visible surfaces and carving.

How tall is Angkor Wat's central tower above ground level?

The central tower rises about 65 metres above ground level, or 43 metres above the inner gallery, standing well above the four corner towers around it.

Roughly how wide is the moat that surrounds Angkor Wat?

The moat is about 190 metres wide and runs more than five kilometres around the outer wall, standing for the cosmic ocean that surrounds Mount Meru.

From which mountain was the sandstone for Angkor Wat quarried?

Mount Kulen (Phnom Kulen), about 40 km north-east of the temple, supplied the sandstone; the blocks were floated to the site along canals and the Siem Reap river.

What was the maximum weight of the individual sandstone blocks used to build Angkor Wat?

The heaviest blocks weigh about 1.5 tons each; the temple used an estimated five to ten million sandstone blocks, fitted so closely that no mortar is visible between them.

The most famous bas-relief on the eastern gallery of Angkor Wat depicts which Hindu scene?

The Churning of the Sea of Milk, on the east gallery's southern half, shows 92 asuras and 88 devas pulling a serpent to churn the ocean for the elixir of immortality under Vishnu's direction.

Which serpent is used as the churning rope in Angkor Wat's Sea of Milk relief?

Vasuki, the serpent king, is wrapped around Mount Mandara as the churning rope, pulled by the asuras at his head and the devas at his tail while Vishnu directs the churning.

The bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat's outer gallery mainly illustrate episodes from which two texts?

The Ramayana and the Mahabharata supply most scenes: the Battle of Lanka fills the west gallery's northern half and the Battle of Kurukshetra its southern half.

The southern gallery of Angkor Wat contains the temple's only historical relief, showing what?

The temple's only historical scene, a procession of Suryavarman II with his court and army, fills the south gallery's western half; its eastern half shows the 37 heavens and 32 hells.

Angkor Wat's bas-reliefs run in which direction, taken as evidence of a funerary purpose?

Brahminic funeral rites are performed in reverse order, and this prasavya direction reverses the normal sequence.

Roughly how many carved devatas (female deities) have been documented at Angkor Wat?

About 1,800 devatas (an inventory counts 1,796) adorn the walls; Sappho Marchal's 1927 study catalogued their hairstyles, headdresses and jewellery as evidence of real Angkorian fashion.

Which people sacked Angkor in 1177, a generation after Angkor Wat was built?

The Chams of Champa, led by Jaya Indravarman IV, attacked by river and sacked Angkor in 1177; the Khmer recovered within a few years under a new king.

Which king built Angkor Thom and the Bayon after restoring the Khmer Empire?

Jayavarman VII, who drove out the Chams and ruled from 1181, built the walled capital of Angkor Thom with the Bayon at its centre and was a devout Mahayana Buddhist.

What does 'Angkor Thom' mean?

Angkor Thom means 'Great City' in Khmer; Jayavarman VII's capital is enclosed by laterite walls about 3 km on each side and 8 m high, with a moat outside them.

The Bayon temple at Angkor Thom has towers carved with roughly how many giant faces?

About 216 faces look out from the Bayon's towers, four to a tower on some 54 towers originally; they are usually read as Jayavarman VII in the guise of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara.

Which tree-root-tangled Angkor temple appeared in the 2001 film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider?

Ta Prohm, left much as found with silk-cotton and strangler-fig roots gripping its galleries, was Jayavarman VII's foundation for his mother; its stele says 79,365 people served it, including 615 dancers.

Ta Prohm was originally called Rajavihara, meaning what?

Rajavihara means 'Royal Monastery' (raja, king; vihara, monastery); Jayavarman VII founded it in 1186 as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and university dedicated to his mother.

In which year did Angkor Wat first appear on Cambodia's national flag?

Angkor Wat has appeared on Cambodia's flag since the first version was introduced in 1863, the year the kingdom became a French protectorate.

Which type of vault roofs the galleries of Angkor Wat?

Khmer builders did not use the true arch; Angkor Wat's galleries are roofed with corbelled vaults, in which each course of stone overhangs the one below until the two sides meet.

Which French naturalist popularised Angkor Wat in the West after visiting in 1860?

Henri Mouhot, a naturalist collecting specimens for British societies, reached Angkor in 1860 and likened it to Solomon's temple raised by 'some ancient Michelangelo'; his journals were published posthumously in 1864.

Where did the French explorer who popularised Angkor Wat in the West die in 1861?

Henri Mouhot died of malaria near Luang Prabang, Laos, in November 1861, aged 35; his tomb stands by the Nam Khan river outside Ban Phanom, east of the old royal capital.

Which Portuguese Capuchin friar is one of the first Europeans recorded as visiting Angkor Wat, in 1586?

António da Madalena, a Portuguese Capuchin friar, visited Angkor in 1586 and in 1589 described it to the chronicler Diogo do Couto, who wrote that it was 'like no other building in the world'.

Which Chinese diplomat visited Angkor in 1296 and wrote the only surviving eyewitness account of the Khmer capital?

Zhou Daguan, a Yuan dynasty envoy, stayed at Angkor from 1296 to 1297; his short Customs of Cambodia is the only surviving first-hand description of the Khmer capital, written under Indravarman III.

Seventeenth-century Japanese pilgrims at Angkor Wat believed they had found which Buddhist holy site?

Jetavana, the Indian garden monastery where the Buddha preached; seventeenth-century Japanese pilgrims left inscriptions at Angkor Wat, one dated 1632, treating the temple as that holy site.

The oldest surviving plan of Angkor Wat, dated 1715, is credited to whom?

The plan is credited to a Japanese visitor, Fujiwara Tadayoshi, whose 1715 drawing copies one made by an earlier Japanese pilgrim in the 1620s or 1630s; it is kept at the Shokokan museum in Mito.

In what year did Angkor fall to Ayutthaya, traditionally marking the end of the Khmer Empire?

Ayutthaya sacked Angkor in 1431, the conventional end of the Khmer Empire; the court moved south toward Phnom Penh, though Angkor Wat itself remained in use by Buddhist monks.

In what year did a Khmer prince declare himself chakravartin, conventionally starting the Khmer Empire?

In 802 Jayavarman II had himself consecrated chakravartin ('universal ruler') at Mahendraparvata on Phnom Kulen, the hills that later supplied Angkor Wat's sandstone.

A 2007 study using satellite photographs concluded that medieval Angkor was the largest what?

The 2007 study led by Damian Evans found Angkor was the largest pre-industrial city in the world by area, an urban sprawl of at least 1,000 square kilometres linked by canals and roads.

Modern analyses suggest the walled enclosure of Angkor Wat itself housed roughly how many residents?

Studies of the enclosure's grid of mounds and ponds suggest 3,000 to 4,300 residents lived inside Angkor Wat's walls; their wooden houses have vanished, leaving only the outlines of streets and ponds.

Which lake lies just south of the Angkor ruins and was used to float building stone toward the site?

Tonlé Sap, South-East Asia's largest freshwater lake, lies south of Angkor; one proposed route floated the sandstone by canal to the lake, across it, and up the Siem Reap River to the site.

Which institution set up the Conservation d'Angkor in 1908 to restore the temples?

The École française d'Extrême-Orient, the French school of Asian studies founded in 1900, set up the Conservation d'Angkor in 1908 and cleared and restored the temples for most of the twentieth century.

Which country's Archaeological Survey carried out restoration at Angkor Wat between 1986 and 1992?

The Archaeological Survey of India restored Angkor Wat from 1986 to 1992 under an agreement with the Phnom Penh government; its use of chemical cleaners and cement was later criticised.

In what year was Angkor declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site?

Angkor was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1992 and placed at once on the List of World Heritage in Danger, after an appeal by Norodom Sihanouk, because of looting and landmines.

How many visitors did Angkor Wat receive in 1993, before the tourism boom?

Only about 7,650 visitors came in 1993, the year after inscription; by 2018 the site drew some 2.6 million foreign tourists a year.

Angkor Wat's main tower aligns with the rising sun on which day?

On the spring equinox the sun rises directly over the central tower as seen from the western causeway; lines of sight from the terraces also pick out towers at the solstice sunrises.

Which lotus-bud-shaped feature is characteristic of the 'Angkor Wat style' of Khmer architecture?

Ogival, redented towers shaped like lotus buds define the Angkor Wat style; other hallmarks are half-galleries to widen passageways, axial galleries linking enclosures, and cruciform terraces along the main axis.

What did conservator George Trouvé find in the pit beneath Angkor Wat's central shrine in 1934?

Trouvé found a foundation deposit of gold leaf about two metres above ground level; the pit itself, filled with sand and water, had already been robbed of its main treasure.

What does Preah Poan, the name of Angkor Wat's cruciform cloister, mean?

Preah Poan means 'The Thousand Buddhas': pilgrims left Buddha images in the cruciform cloister for centuries, and its inscriptions include Burmese and Japanese ones.

Which Angkor-area temple, built of pink sandstone in 967, is nicknamed the 'citadel of the women'?

Banteay Srei, consecrated in 967 and dedicated to Shiva, is built of fine-grained pink sandstone whose deep, intricate carvings earned it the modern name 'citadel of the women'.

The side entrances beside Angkor Wat's western gopura are nicknamed after which animal?

They are called the elephant gates, being large enough to admit elephants; their galleries have square pillars on the outer west side and a closed wall on the inner side.

In which two cities did French colonial exhibitions show life-size Angkor Wat replicas from 1889 to 1937?

Paris and Marseille hosted the colonial exhibitions between 1889 and 1937 that displayed full-scale plaster replicas of the temple; Louis Delaporte's casts also filled his musée Indo-chinois in the Trocadéro Palace.

Which company leased and managed the Angkor site from the Cambodian government until 2016?

SOKIMEX, a Cambodian petroleum conglomerate, held the concession for the site until 2016; as of 2000 only about 28% of ticket revenue was spent on the temples themselves.

Which devout Mahayana Buddhist encouraged Jayavarman VII to convert, leading Angkor Wat's shift to Buddhism?

Hindu sculptures at Angkor Wat were gradually replaced with Buddhist art, and the site has served as a Buddhist centre ever since.

Which French writer was arrested in 1923 for removing bas-reliefs from Banteay Srei?

André Malraux, then 22, was arrested in 1923 after prising carvings from Banteay Srei; the episode fed his novel The Royal Way, and he later served as France's culture minister.

In which year did Cambodia gain independence from France and take control of Angkor Wat?

Cambodia became independent from France in November 1953 and took control of the site, though the French-run Conservation d'Angkor went on restoring the temples into the early 1970s.

In which year was the Conservation d'Angkor disbanded?

The Conservation d'Angkor was disbanded in 1975 when the Khmer Rouge took power; camping troops burned what wood remained, though art thieves in the late 1980s did far more damage to the reliefs.

Why was it India, not the usual colonial-era experts, that restored the temple from 1986 to 1992?

Paris did not recognise Phnom Penh's regime, the Vietnamese-backed People's Republic of Kampuchea, so the Archaeological Survey of India took on the work; both the French and Indian efforts were later criticised for chemicals and cement.

In which year was Angkor removed from UNESCO's World Heritage in Danger list?

Angkor came off the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2004, after a decade of conservation and de-mining coordinated by the International Coordinating Committee; it had been listed as endangered on inscription in 1992.

What is the name of the Cambodian authority set up in 1995 to protect and manage the Angkor area?

Zoning came in 1994 and a heritage law in 1996; the German Apsara Conservation Project separately protects the carved devatas.

A German survey found roughly what share of Angkor Wat's devatas in very poor condition?

The German Apsara Conservation Project found about 20% of the devatas in very poor condition, blaming natural erosion, microbial biofilms and earlier restorations; a Japanese team restored the north library in 2005.

Researchers from which institution found buried, demolished towers beneath Angkor Wat in 2015?

A University of Sydney team led by Roland Fletcher announced in December 2015 the discovery of buried towers built and demolished during construction, a wooden-fortified structure to the south, and signs of ordinary residents inside the moat.

LIDAR scans show Angkor Wat rests on roughly how much fill?

Five to ten million sandstone blocks sit on top; the binding agent between them is still unidentified, with resins or slaked lime suggested.

In 2011 Waseda University researchers found a shorter canal from Mount Kulen to Angkor Wat of what length?

The canal found by Etsuo Uchida and Ichita Shimoda in 2011 runs about 35 km from the Kulen quarries to the temple, far shorter than the older theory's 90 km route via the Tonlé Sap and Siem Reap River.

Which Indonesian monument became Angkor Wat's official 'sister site' at the 2012 ASEAN Tourism Forum?

Borobudur, the ninth-century Buddhist monument in central Java, was twinned with Angkor Wat under a sister-site agreement signed at the ASEAN Tourism Forum in Manado in January 2012.