🛕 Angkor Thom

Angkor Thom (meaning "Great City") was the last and greatest capital of the Khmer Empire, founded by Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century after the Cham sack of 1177 had devastated the earlier royal city. Conceived as a Buddhist capital, it is really a walled city rather than a single temple, covering about 9 square kilometres behind an 8-metre-high laterite wall and a wide moat.

Entry is through five monumental gates, each topped by four serene faces and approached by a causeway lined with 54 gods on one side and 54 demons on the other, gripping the body of a naga serpent — a three-dimensional recreation of the Churning of the Sea of Milk. The south gate, on the road from Angkor Wat, is the best preserved and most photographed.

At the exact geometric centre stands the enigmatic Bayon, Jayavarman VII's state temple, with its multitude of giant smiling faces. Radiating from it are many of Angkor's most important monuments: the pyramid-temple of Baphuon, the royal palace enclosure and its Phimeanakas temple, and the great viewing platforms of the Terrace of the Elephants and the Terrace of the Leper King.

At its height around 1200, Greater Angkor was among the largest pre-industrial settlements on Earth, and the population living within and around the walls has been estimated in the hundreds of thousands. Today the whole complex sits within the Angkor Archaeological Park; a full day rewards visitors who pair the Bayon with the terraces, Baphuon and the quieter corners near the gates.