Angkor Thom

Angkor Thom was a walled city, the last and greatest capital of the Angkor era, built in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. It was home to more than a million inhabitants and more spectacular and extravagant than any Western city of its time. The houses were made of wood and have weathered away, but the stone religious monuments remain. This is mostly from the Rough Guide; Kong gave me a good orientation as well, but there were a lot of different things to see, and though I liked the flexibility of being on my own, it might have been nice to also have a guide along for this stop.


The Terrace of the Leper King was named after the statue of a naked figure that was found there (and is now in the National Museum in Phnom Penh.


The Terrace of the Elephants would have been used by the king to address the public and as a viewing platform on special occasions.



Not much is left of the King’s Palace, but the bathing pools are there.


The neighboring temple of Baphuon is now a pile of rubble, but in its day was much more impressive, adorned with bronze.


The highlight (and another candidate for favorite place of the day) was Bayon, the temple at the center, with large carved faces that adorn the 54 towers – each tower has four heads, each facing one of the points of the compass.








There were some people getting dressed in traditional garb for a performance – I didn’t see the performance but I did see the garb!



I loved it here – I was (am?) very tempted to buy a replica head for the imaginary apartment.




I even had Kong take a picture of me in front of it.


There are five gateways – one for each of the cardinal points and the fifth leading directly to the royal palace compound. Each gateway is approached by a causeway and each causeway had 54 god images on the left and 54 demon images on the right. Even with so much that remains, I couldn't begin to imagine what it was like in its heyday.