Today we visited the grand-daddy of the Angkor complex, Angkor Wat. The temple is the best preserved in the Angkor complex, but was damaged by the Khmer Rouge during the late 1970s. This temple was constructed in the early 12th century, and is surrounded by its own moat and walls (walking around the outside wall is 2 miles). You enter the temple through 2 causeways and a gate.
There are three levels to the temple, which is dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu. On the bottom level of the temple, there are galleries with intricate carvings telling Hindu tales such as the Ramayana (we heard about this one multiple times throughout our trip. Basic jist: Good king falls in love with beautiful girl, evil king steals girl, good king wages war and wins girl back).
The temple originally had 9 towers, but only 5 remain, and they are shaped to look like closed lotus flowers.
We ate lunch and then relaxed for a while. We made a quick trip to the market and saw some locals fishing in the river.
We enjoyed Angkor Wat so much, that we decided to go back to the temple to take in some views during sunset.
Some monks also enjoying the sunset:
In the evening, we headed to dinner-theater, where we enjoyed a traditional Khmer food and an Apsara dance show.
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