R. Doug Wicker — Author

Thursday, 6 November proved to be a very long day. Ursula had us scheduled for an extensive tour of various temples around Siem Reap in the Angkor Archaeological Park. In particular, we would visit “The Big Three” temples — Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, and Bayon (For a great rundown, see “Anna’s” take at: All the temples I visited in Angkor: ranked). But we would have to get an early start, because our tour was to begin at Angkor Wat well before sunup so that we could beat the crowds and position ourselves to the west to witness sunrise over the temple. So… how early? Had-to-use-a-flashlight-and-still-couldn’t-hold-the-camera-steady-enough early:

Pretty pathetic photography, eh? Oh, well. Not every shot can rival Ansel Adams. Not that any of my shot rivals Ansel Adams, mind you. Now for a quick overview of Angkor Wat to help get you oriented, courtesy of Google Maps:

I didn’t have the best camera to take advantage of the lighting conditions, as one might suspect from the second image above, and I was still getting used to a new small (1/2.3″) sensor camera (big mistake). I’m in the process of fixing that shortcoming with a little research into a new, compact, easily transported camera with a 1.0-type sensor (which isn’t actually anywhere near one inch, but that’s another story). But let’s get back to Angkor Wat

Construction of Angkor Wat began in 1122, commissioned by Khmer Empire ruler Suryavarman II., and it was completed twenty-eight years later. It originally served as a Vaishnava Hindu temple. But after the ascension of Jayavarman VII in 1150, the Khmer Empire’s first Buddhist ruler, that gradually began to change. As the 14th century arrived, the transition was complete and Angkor Wat was officially rededicated as a Buddhist temple.

One really interesting Angkor Wat feature, along the western gallery, is a massive, 160-foot/49-meter bas relief depiction of the Kurukshetra War as described in the Hindu epic Mahabharata.

Now for a photo gallery/slide show of more Angkor Wat images, but inside and outside the temple:

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