Siem Reap is a famous tourism city of Cambodia Kingdom, attracts thousands of tourists from all over the world by the masterpiece wonders of Angkor every day.

 

Kampong K’dei Bridge was built in 1186 and more than 800 years now. It is less than 100 meters long, the bridge deck is about 14 meters wide. This bridge is built entirely by laterite, no adhesive. The bridge architecture is similar to the stone arch bridge built by the Romans in Europe. Very sacred Naga Snake God Statue with seven heads is put on two bridgeheads. People here worship these statue. The body of bridge also brings the appearance of this Snake God’s body. 

From Kampong K’dei Bridge, you continue going more 45 minutes to reach Siem Reap City. The city was named by King Anong Chanriechievy after the Khmer empire defeated Siam (Thailand today) under King Ayutthaya in the 12th century. The name “Siem Reap” means “Siamese invaders victory”. According Khmer language, Siem is Siamese and Reap is the victory.

The asphalt roads in the center of Siem Reap is very large with full of hotels and restaurants which are closed together at two sides. But the development of a tourism city did not make Siem Reap lose the inherent characteristics and ancient beauty. To the old town preserves its identity in harmony with temple’s ancient architecture here, all hotels bring Khmer style with red tile roofs, traditional motifs are sculpted ingeniously. Moreover, the buildings is not built higher than 65 meters in comparison with the highest temple in Angkor populations.
 

 

Although Siem Reap is one of the most superlative tourism destinations with large number of visitors yearly, it still owns peaceful space. Siem Reap has no spectacle of chaotic traffic, no loudly honk, no visitor-struggle as the other popular sightseeing destinations.

Far about 7 kilometers from Siem Reap center is a renowned relic of Angkor Wat. This is one of the most important historical sites in Cambodia and considered as the supreme Khmer architecture. Angkor Wat is recognized as The World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1991 and can be comparable with the Great Wall, the pyramids of Egypt...
 
Long time ago, Angkor Wat was the capital of the Khmer empire. The populations of Angkor was built in 37 years on a surface of more than 1 kilometer in the first half of 12th century. This is a place to worship the Hindu God - Vishnu. Later, when the dynasty Khmer followed Buddhist, Angkor Wat became sacred Buddha temple populations.  After the capital was destroyed by Siamese, the King moved the capital to Phnom Penh in the 15th century, then Angkor Wat gradually fell into oblivion and being covered by old forest.
 

 

Angkor Wat is the only temple in Cambodia that the main hall toward sundown direction. The most ideal time for you to record beautiful images of this temple is at sunset when the yellow sunshine overlays up moss stone walls tinged with time-color.

Strolling through the long corridors then going through every corners of Angkor Wat, you will be surprised to realize the unique architecture here. At that time, building technique was not modern but the ancient people had created the way of using large green rocks to be stacked up then engraved on stone according to the story of Indian epics.

In the great rooms of the temple, there is a very magical room that travelers usually stand closely with the wall then hold tightly hands and pat slightly on chest, an echo will immediately appear like the drums sound. When viewing from the outside into, this room is designed on the left side. Among many maidens are sculpted on the wall, there is a mouth-open maiden baring four teeth because she is very shy when being a new comers into the royal palace so she stands and chuckles alone right at door.

Just taking 5 minutes to drive from the Angkor Wat heritage site is the populations of Angkor Thom with 8-metter-high laterite walls surrounded a 9-square-kilometer-wide temples area. Angkor Thom was the last capital and most enduring of the Khmer, it was built in the late 12th century by King Jayavarman VII.
 

 
 

Angkor Thom area has 4 gates viewing to four directions East - West - South - North. The faces on the 23-metter-high towers at entrance gates are similar to the faces at Bayon Temple. They represents for the King, Lokesvara God, the guardian God of Kingdom's directions. Along the entrance to inside citadel, there are rows of Deva God statue lifting up Naga Snake God in tug-posture. This is the image related to the sea of milk stirring legend in Angkor.

Inside the stronghold, there is a system of canals to direct water to flow from the Northeast to the Southwest. The land is surrounded by the wall which could be the place to build the secular buildings of the city, but these buildings did not exist. Today this area is covered by forest.

Bayon Temple is located in the center of Angkor Thom relics and known as the most impressive temple of mountain-temple architecture in Cambodia because of the grandiose scale and hundreds of gorgeous 4-face statues. The temple has 216 face-statues on top of 54 large and small towers. The elegant faces of the Gods are sculptured on each tower that symbolizes the observation of the God to four directions of Cambodia.
 

 

Bayon Temple was built in the 12th century by King Jayavarman VII. It is the only national temple in Angkor built to worship Buddha. After Jayavarman passed away, the temple was repaired meticulously. Going here to admire Bayon, you will have the mysterious spiritual feelings.

Ta Prohm Temple is located in the East of Angkor Thom and built according to Bayon style in the late of 12th century. This destination attracts many tourists visiting annually. The temple was abandoned after the collapse of the Khmer empire in 15th century. Mystical landscape of the temple was the scene for famous Hollywood movie "Lara Croft Tomb Raider".
 

 

Luxuriant vegetation and tree trunks grow around the walls that create the mysterious and especially impressive beauty for the temple. Entering the Temple campus, you will be overwhelmed by bizarre shapes when seeing the roots of old trees like the giant python wrapping around the temple. You shouldn’t mistake that trees grow from the land bottom up then entwine the temple, actually trees grow from above the temple down because birds release tree seeds then meeting favorable conditions to grow trees.