Angkor Thom, the great city, was the last capital of the Khmer empire, built by Jayavarman VII after the Cham sacked Angkor in 1177. It is a square of three kilometres a side enclosed by an eight-metre wall and a moat, and at its height held perhaps 100,000 people. Everything inside it made of wood has gone; the stone temples remain.
The gates
Five monumental gates pierce the wall, each topped with four faces and approached by a causeway lined with 54 gods on one side and 54 demons on the other, pulling a naga in the same churning myth carved at Angkor Wat. The south gate is the best preserved and is the standard entrance.
The Bayon
At the exact centre stands the Bayon, with 37 surviving towers of an original 49 or 54, each carrying four faces about 2 m high. Who they represent is debated: the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, the king himself, or deliberately both. The effect at close range, with faces appearing above and behind you in every direction, is the single strongest experience in the Angkor complex. Go at eight in the morning or after three; midday flattens the carving.
The Bayon reliefs
Unlike Angkor Wat, the outer gallery here shows ordinary life alongside the naval battles against the Cham: markets, cockfighting, a woman giving birth, men playing chess, a cook at a fire. It is the best surviving record of how twelfth-century Cambodians actually lived.
The terraces
North of the Bayon, the Terrace of the Elephants runs 350 m and was the reviewing platform for royal processions, carved with elephants and garudas. The adjacent Terrace of the Leper King has a deep hidden trench with a second set of reliefs behind the outer wall. Facing them are the Baphuon, a temple-mountain reassembled over decades after the excavation records were destroyed under the Khmer Rouge, and Phimeanakas.
Jayavarman VII
The king who built all of this converted the state to Mahayana Buddhism, constructed 102 hospitals and a network of rest houses along the roads, and left more monuments than any other Khmer ruler. His reign is the high point of the empire and the beginning of its decline, since the building programme exhausted it.
Practicalities
Angkor Thom is 1.5 km north of Angkor Wat and part of the same small circuit. Allow at least two hours for the Bayon and the terraces. The complex is included in the Angkor Pass.