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.
Built in the first half of the 12th Century
by King Suryavarman II (reigned 1113-circa 1150)
The North Gopura is a little-visited gateway of Angkor Wat. It is one of the four gates with towers, called Gopura, located at each cardinal point of the complex. Of these, most visitors enter Angkor Wat through the West Gopura. The North Gopura serves primarily an ornamental function, to balance up the design that a gopura exists on each cardinal point. During ancient times, visitors probably entered here by boats.
The North Gopura of Angkor Wat can be visited if one has time to kill. It is located at the end of a 400 meter dirt track. There are not many people who come here, apart from one or two by bicycle or by walking. From the North Gopura, you can view the northern side of the Angkor Wat moat.
North Gopura of Angkor Wat.
Water plants such as water lilies cover this section of the moat. Occassionally, you can see the lawnkeepers removing the waterlilies that threaten to choke the moat by cutting off oxygen to the lakebed.
The grounds of Angkor Wat.
The moat on the north side of Angkor Wat.
Angkor Wat as seen from the dirt track on the walk back from the North Gopura.
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
Exploring Angkor, Unesco World Heritage Site
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