amazing temple-angkor wat, angkor thom, and bayon

8/14/2019 Amazing Temple-Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, And Bayon

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Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, and Bayon: - Angkor Wat was built in

the early 12th century in what is now Cambodia. The world


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famous temple was first a Hindu one, dedicated to Vishnu. In the

14th or 15th century, as Buddhism swept across Asia, it became

a Buddhist temple. The Western worlds got a glimpse of Angkor

Wat when a 16th century Portuguese monk visited the temple

and eloquently described it as of such extraordinary construction

that it is not possible to describe it with a pen, particularly since it

is like no other building in the world. It has towers and decoration

and all the refinements which the human genius can conceive of.

His words still rang true today. Tourists visiting Angkor Wat

usually also visit the nearby ruins of Angkor Thom and Bayon,

two fantastic temples that serve as the ancient capital of Khmer

empire.

Angkor is a name conventionally applied to the region of

Cambodia serving as the seat of the Khmer empire that flourished

from approximately the ninth century to the fifteenth century

A.D. (The word "Angkor" itself is derived from the Sanskrit

"nagara," meaning "city.")[1] More precisely, the Angkorian

period may be defined as the period from 802 A.D., when the

Khmer Hindu monarch Jayavarman II declared himself the"universal monarch" and "god-king" of Cambodia, until 1431

A.D., when Thai invaders sacked the Khmer capital, causing its

population to migrate south to the area of Phnom Penh.

The ruins of Angkor are located amid forests and farmland to the

north of the Great Lake (Tonle Sap) and south of the Kulen Hills,

near modern day Siem Reap (1324'N, 10351'E), and are a

UNESCO World Heritage Site. The temples of the Angkor areanumber over one thousand, ranging in scale from nondescript

piles of brick rubble scattered through rice fields to the

magnificent Angkor Wat, said to be the world's largest single

religious monument. Many of the temples at Angkor have been

restored, and together they comprise the most significant site of


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Khmer architecture. Visitor numbers approach two million

annually.

In 2007 an international team of researchers using satellite

photographs and other modern techniques concluded that Angkor

had been the largest preindustrial city in the world with an urban

sprawl of 3000 square kilometers. The closest rival to Angkor, the

Mayan city of Tikal in Guatemala, was between 100 and 150

square kilometers in total size.[2] Angkor could have supported a

population of up to one million people.[3]


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Author: Laiq shahid

amazing temple-angkor wat, angkor thom, and bayon

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