Angkor Thom

As misleading as it may be so far, all of the preceding posts have dealt with temples and sites within the ancient Khmer city of Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom, much like most middle age cities, is surrounded by a large brick wall. It is perfectly square, and contains four gates, each leading to one of the cardinal directions, north, east, south and west. As in most cases, the Khmers built the most impressive entrace facing East, as it seems that it was most common, or possibly mandatory to approach from that direction. The East Gate, has a lengthy (by ancient standards) causeway crossing the surrounding moat. It is adorned with dozens of large, stone men holding a cobra. It is rather impressive even in excess of 1000 years later. The North Gate is more commonly known as Victory Gate, in celebration of the Khmer victory over the ancient Thai people.

Victory Gate