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Angkor is the ancient capital of the Khmer kingdom which prospered from the 9th to the 15th century. The ruins are situated in the jungle forests north of Tonlé Sap in the actual Cambodian province of Siem Reap and has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

For the Cambodians, who laboriously rebuild their lives after long years of terror and traumatism, the Angkor temples are not only source of inspiration and national pride, but also the true soul of the kingdom. All Khmers visit them as pilgrims, and foreign visitors arrive by crowds to admire their sumptuous beauty.

The Angkor temples were built between the 9th and 15th centuries – an epoch where the Khmer creativity attained its culminating point.

These temples are of an unrivalled beauty in South-East Asia, and even if the site of Bagan in Myanmar (Burma) is a solid competitor, Angkor ranks with the first architectural achievements of the Earth. Thanks to their stronghold of Angkor, the sovereigns of the mighty Khmer empire ruled over a vast territory stretching North-South from the Chinese province of Yunnan to the South-most extremity of modern Vietnam and, in the West-East sense, from Vietnam to the Bay of Bengal. The about one hundred temples of the Angkor site were in fact the sacred backbone of an extraordinary administrative and religious centre. Private houses, public buildings and palaces had been built using timber, which explains that they have disappeared long since, whereas bricks and stone had been kept in store for the divinities.

The towers of Angkor Vat, the most famous temple and most majestic site of Angkor, are the emblem of Cambodia. Angkor Vat is a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu. The building was started at the beginning of the 12th century (just before that of Notre Dame de Paris) during the reign of king Suryavarman II, and completed 37 years later. Its Khmer name means ‘pagoda town’.

The main tower of the central temple represents the mount ‘Meru’ (or Kailash), i.e. the centre of the universe for both Hindus and Buddhists. The temple is supposed to be invulnerable. Therefore, during the war that started in 1970, the inhabitants of Siem Reap sought shelter in the temple.