#2 Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, CAMBODIA

Angkor Archaeological Park/Siem Reap Province - The following temple ruins are located in Siem Reap Province, most within the boundaries of the Angkor Archaeological Park near Siem Reap City. The temple sites with the Angkor Archaeological Park represent the ruins of the ancient Angkorian capital cities and include most of the most famous Khmer temples including Angkor Wat andBayon.

The temple complex at Angkor Wat, just outside of Siem Reap,Cambodia, is world famous for its intricate lotus-blossom towers, its enigmatic smiling Buddha images and lovely dancing girls (apsaras), and its geometrically perfect moats and reservoirs.

An architectural jewel, Angkor Wat itself is the largest religious structure in the world. It is the crowning achievement of the classical Khmer Empire, which once ruled most of Southeast Asia. The Khmer culture and the empire alike were built around a single critical resource: water. The connection with water is immediately apparent at Angkor today. Angkor Wat (meaning "Capital Temple") and the larger Angkor Thom ("Capital City") are both surrounded by perfectly square moats. Two five-mile-long rectangular reservoirs glitter nearby, the West Baray and the East Baray. Within the immediate neighborhood, there are also three other major barays, and numerous small ones.

Some twenty miles to the south of Siem Reap, a seemingly inexhaustible supply of freshwater stretches across 16,000 square kilometers of Cambodia. This is the Tonle Sap, Southeast Asia's largest freshwater lake.

It may seem odd that a civilization built on the edge of Southeast Asia's "great lake" should need to rely on a complicated irrigation system, but the lake is extremely seasonal. During the monsoon season, the vast amount of water pouring through the watershed causes the Mekong River to actually back up behind its delta, and begin to flow backwards. The water flows out over the 16,000 square kilometer lake-bed, remaining for about 4 months. However, once the dry season returns, the lake shrinks down to 2,700 square kilometers, leaving the Angkor Wat area high and dry.

The other problem with Tonle Sap, from an Angkorian point of view, is that it is at a lower elevation than the ancient city. Kings and engineers knew better than to site their wonderful buildings too close to the erratic lake/river, but they did not have the technology to make water run uphill.

In order to provide a year-round supply of water for irrigating rice crops, the engineers of the Khmer Empire connected a region the size of modern-day New York City with an elaborate system of reservoirs, canals and dams. Rather than using the water of Tonle Sap, the reservoirs collect monsoon rainwater, and store it for the dry months. NASA photographs reveal the traces of these ancient waterworks, hidden at ground level by the thick tropical rainforest. A steady water supply allowed for three or even four plantings of the notoriously thirsty rice crop per year, and also left enough water for ritual use.

According to Hindu mythology, which the Khmer people absorbed from Indian traders, the gods live on the five-peaked Mount Meru, surrounded by an ocean. To replicate this geography, the Khmer king Suryavarman II designed a five-towered temple surrounded by an enormous moat. Construction on his lovely design began in 1140; the temple later came to be known as Angkor Wat.