a blog about food, art, travel & more...: January 2026

Wednesday, January 7, 2026

Angkor Thom, Siem Reap

Derived from the word, Nagar (नगर) meaning city and Thom meaning big, Angkor Thom or Nakor Thom was the last capital of the Khmer Kingdom. It was established in the 12th century by King Jayavarman VII. It included many monuments, some built by Jayavarman VII and some by his successors.

The city covers an area of 10 square km.

South Gate

History of Angkor Thom:

Yasodharapura (यशोधरपुर) was the capital of Khmer Kingdom which was established by Yasovarman I in the late 9th century.
After this, Hariharalaya was made the capital.
Jayavarman VII made Angkor Thom the capital after driving the Chams out.
Till the time his palace was under construction at Angkor Thom, the King lived in Preah Khan.
Angkor Thom was a huge city and already had few temples as Baphuon and the Phimeankas which were built in the late 10th and early 11th century.
With the fall of Khmer kingdom in 1432, it was abandoned.
Additions were made inside the city as construction of Bayon, elephant terrace, Leper King terrace.
The elephant terrace and the Leper King terrace formed the eastern boundary of city.
The city had thousands of people living in wooden houses, which are no more and we now see vast empty land.
All the gates had huge wooden gates which used to close at night

The 9 km square city was fortified by eight meter high wall which is further surrounded by a 100 meter wide moat.

Entrance to the city was through five gates: North Gate ( Thvear Ta Nok), South Gate (Thvear Tonle Om), East Gate, also said to be gate of the dead (Thvear Khnoch), West Gate (Thvear Ta Keo). In addition, there is another gate, Victory Gate (Thvear Chey). The famous Prasat Bayon is a part of Angkor Thom and stands exactly in its center.

South Gate

Most of the tourists coming from Siem Reap pass through this gate to enter Angkor Thom.

The causeway of the moat is lined on either sides by stone figures. On one side are 54 Devas (Hindu deity) and on the other side are 54 Asuras( demons). They are seen pulling the body of snake Vasuki who is the King of Nagas. The scene depicts the mythological Hindu story of the "Churning of the Ocean Milk". This scene is also seen on the southern gallery wall of Angkor Wat

The story tells about the ocean being churned by Devas and Asuras so as to extract the elixir of being mortal. Vasuki, was used as a rope and Mount Mandara or Meru served as the pole around which the ocean was churned.

moat surrounding Angkor Thom

Entrance to Jayavarman VII's capital is through a causeway and a naga bridge. Similar thing can be seen at the entrance at Preah Khan.

The outer wall of Angkor Thom is a square that measures 3km (1.8 miles) on each side. The total length it covers is 12km or 7.2 miles.

The gate with large heads, commonly called the "face towers" are very similar to the ones at Bayon. The heads which either represent Lokeshwar face, Brahma or King Jayavarman VII face in each four cardinal direction. Lokeshwar is the Boddhisattava of compassion. According to some historians, it may represent King Jayavarman VII himself.

The gates are 7 meters by 3 1/2 meters. They had wooden gate which used to be closed at night.

wooden gate still can be seen

The gates are flanked by 3-headed elephant, Airawat, with God Indra sitting on his back. Indra has a vajra, lightning bolt in his hand. Since Indra was the king of gods, the whole structure symbolises to Mount Meru. Mount Meru is said to home of gods. Above Indra, can be seen a row of devta with folded hands.