Angkor Wat: City of Peace

Siem Reap in Cambodia’s north is a popular tourist city, complete with hotels, restaurants, and bars. It is the country's second largest city. It is also the site of the famous ancient city, Angkor Wat, and the temples of Angkor Thom.

The Cambodian government regulates construction and architecture of new buildings to remain in harmony with the Angkor complex. Most Khmer architecture features the traditional red roofs and maintains a low rise of 65 metres so as not to surpass the temple towers throughout Siem Reap.

Angkor Thom, built at the request of King Jayavaram VII in the late 12^th century, was the capital of the Khmer Empire. On a perfect 3-kilometre square stands temples of laterite and sandstone. It is thought that workers used a canal system to transport stones weighing up to 1.6 tons over 30 kilometres from quays to the construction site.

In the middle of the Angkor compound is the Bayon, home to 54 towers, each featuring the massive statue of a face carved on each of its four facades. To the east of Angkor Thom is Ta Prohm Temple with both Buddhist and Hindu influences. Huge trees with enormous roots that wrap around the temples seem to be about to uproot them.

Lining a long terrace are the longest and largest stone murals in the world. They measure 2.5 metres high and 800 metres long on the temples first floor of the ancient City of Peace, Angkor Wat. Dedicated to the Hindu God, Visnu, the second floor has a variety of beautifully carved Apsara fairies. Representing Heaven, the third floor is 65 metres high with a steep, narrow staircase. From the top of the staircase is a panoramic view of Siem Reap and the Angkor compound.

Angkor Wat faces west, while all of the other temples in Angkor face east. No one is sure why.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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