Temples of Angkor, Cambodia

Angkor is the largest sacred complex in the world - it consists of almost 100 temples scattered over 400 square kilometers. Hindu and Buddhist temples were built from the 9th to the 15th century in the jungle in the present-day northern Cambodia, near Siem Reap. Angkor (the word in Khmer meaning "capital" or "holy city") was the capital of the Khmer Empire for over half a millennium (ninth - fifteenth century).

Angkor Wat is the most wonderful of the complex's temples. Its construction was completed a few years before the construction of the Paris cathedral Notre Dame and it was said that more stone was used for it than for the Cheops Pyramid. For 37 years (1113-1150), there were 55 thousand workers at work. Angkor Wat surrounds the square of the moat and walls is 2 km sq. It was built exactly at the intersection of the lines marking north, south, east and west.