The sight is located within Angkor. To prepare for your visit, read the AsiaExplorers Angkor Travel Guide for useful information. Visitors to Angkor stay at the town of Siem Reap. If you are looking for budget accommodation in Siem Reap, use the Cambodia Budget Accommodation Guide to find a place to stay.
The Inner Sanctuary of Angkor Wat lies at the very centre of the complex. Having made one full circle around Angkor Wat, let us now venture into the Inner Sanctuary. We begin from the Main Entrance again, and climbs the stairs in the semi-darkness to Angkor Wat's second level. Here we arrive at the "cruciform cloisters", a Khmer architectural invention connecting the galleries of the first and second levels. Here we find the "Hall of a Thousand Buddhas", so called because of the many Buddha statues that were placed here by worshippers over the centuries, when Angkor Wat was a Theravada Buddhist pilgrimage site. Many were destroyed by the Khmer Rouge, and a good many are now in safekeeping by Angkor conservationists.
The cloisters leading to the Hall of a Thousand Buddhas.
Continue to climb the steps up to the enclosure of the second level, and we emerge at a massive courtyard. In the middle of it is the massif of the central towers of Angkor Wat.
The massif of the central towers.
From here on, the stairs going up to the innermost sanctuary is breakneck steep. If you are not surefooted, head to the stairs on the south side where there is an iron railing by the side to aid your climb. The climb is surely worthwhile, if you can make it, for the view is stupendous. You can see all the way to the outer gates of Angkor Wat, and even to Phnom Bakheng.
The innermost sanctuary consists of a continuous gallery that is 60 meters square. Four towers, called prasats, rise from each corner. The central prasat, towering 42 meters high, is connected to the rest by axial galleries. Within this "holiest of holies" are shrines whose usage has changed since the construction of Angkor Wat. Originally this innermost sanctuary housed a statue of Vishnu, but somewhere in the 14th or 15th Century, it was converted and now consists of four vestibules housing Buddhas.
The central tower, or prasat, of Angkor Wat. Note the erosion of the structure due to the inferior material used to construct it.
Click thumbnail to visit the different sections of Angkor Wat
Battle of Kurukshetra
Churning the Ocean of Milk
East Gopura
Inner Sanctuary
North Gopura
Other Sections
South Gopura
Army of Suryavarman II
Angkor, Unesco World Heritage Site
AsiaExplorers provides you one of the most detailed documentation on Angkor, Unesco World Heritage Site, for you to explore from the comfort of your desktop.
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AsiaExplorers is researched and written by Timothy Tye. Reasonable care is taken to check and verify the accuracy of the content. AsiaExplorers disclaims responsibility for any inconvenience, mishap, injury or death resulting from following the tips and advice provided directly or indirectly by this website. All pages may be printed out for your own personal, non-commercial use. You may use the information on this website on your blog or website so long as you place a dofollow link back to the page in AsiaExplorers where it appears. Photographs not credited to a third party belong to Timothy Tye and may not be reused in any form unless you are first given permission. Write in to inquire if interested. Third party photographs are governed by their respective licenses. To contact Tim, write to the following email address:
Before booking a hotel room, make sure you are getting the lowest price for it. Different hotel booking websites offers the same room at different prices. If you stick with one site all the time, you could be paying more for the same room. Now why pay more?
The form below is a Research Engine. It doesn't take bookings. Instead it lets you find the hotel booking website that offers the room you want at the lowest price. You can see and compare what different sites are offering, and then click to choose the one with the best price. Do this, and you're guaranteed to save a whole lot of money on your room reservations!
If you're flying somewhere, use our Flight Checker to compare the rates from different airlines. To use it, enter where you will be flying from, where you will be flying to, your departure date and return date. Select the number of passengers, and then click search.
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AsiaExplorers is researched and written by Timothy Tye. Reasonable care is taken to check and verify the accuracy of the content. AsiaExplorers disclaims responsibility for any inconvenience, mishap, injury or death resulting from following the tips and advice provided directly or indirectly by this website. All pages may be printed out for your own personal, non-commercial use. You may use the information on this website on your blog or website so long as you place a dofollow link back to the page in AsiaExplorers where it appears. Photographs not credited to a third party belong to Timothy Tye and may not be reused in any form unless you are first given permission. Write in to inquire if interested. Third party photographs are governed by their respective licenses. To contact Tim, write to the following email address:
