Angkor is a city of Khmer empire located in the current Cambodia, built between the centuries IX and XV. Angkor comes from Sanskrit, and it means city.

Its extension is 400 square kilometer, the highest location of its kind in the world. Most of it in Cambodia, but also occupied part of the current Vietnam, Thailand and Laos.

Its archaeological centers are Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat. The words Thom and Wat come from Khmer language and mean respectively “big” and “pagoda”. Thus Angkor Thom must be understood as “Big City” and Angkor Wat as “City of the Temple”.

Angkor Thom is a city fortress built by king Jayavrman at the end of the 12th century after the conquest and destruction of Angkor by Chams. Read the rest of this entry »