Angkor Wat
Date: Early 12th century (between 1113 and 1150) with later additions
Style: Angkor Wat
Reign: Suryavaraman II
For once, the modern name of a temple is completely justified. Angkor Wat, the city which become a pagoda, was not only the grandest and most sublime of all the Khmer temples, but also a city in its own right. It was built during the reign of Suryavaraman II, in the first half of the 12th century, both as the capital and the State temple dedicated to Vishnu.
Plan
The outer limits of Angkor Wat are set by its broad moat, faced in laterite and sandstone. Including this, the total area is almost 200 hectares-a rectangle of 1.5 Km E-W by 1.3 Km N-S, the largest temple at Angkor. Two causeways at W and E cross the 190m-wide moat to the outer enclosure, bounded by a laterite wall of 1025m by 802m. Because of Angkor Wat's unusual orientation, the W gopura of this outer enclosure is by far the largest of the four.
Within the 82 hectares of the outer enclosure, the temple itself stands in the middle on a terrace measuring 332m * 258m, nearly 9 hectares. The remaining 9/10ths of course no trace remains of these buildings, presumably constructed in light materials. Following tradition, the palace would have been to the north of the actual temple.
The temple proper combines two major features of Khmer architecture: a pyramid and concentric galleries. Pyramids, which in most cases were created by means of stepped terraces, date back to the 8th century Ak Yum and the better 9th century Bakong, and were the Khmer method of symbolising the centre of the Hindu universe, Mount Meru, in the form of a temple-mountain. Galleries, however, evolved later, around the beginning of the 11th century; they were the natural succession to a growing number of annex buildings surrounding the sanctuary. Angkor Wat is, to put it as simply as possible, a pyramid of three levels, each one enclosed by a well-developed gallery with four gopura and corner towers. The summit is crowned with five towers in a quincunx.