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Angkor
Wat,
Cambodia
"Angkor Wat at Sunrise, Cambodia"
©2001
Elroy Christenson
Flying from Vietnam to Cambodia was not without its tensions
but the
arrival at Angkor Wat for an afternoon sunset and an early
sunrise made
it worth every moment. The monument was constructed in the
early 12th
century. Angkor Wat was built as a temple and monument to
promote the
power of the king, Suryavarman II, as the hindu god, Vishnu.
The city
that supported it may have had a population of one million
making it
one of the largest cities in Asia at the time. The wealth
also brought
numerous invasions in particular from the Cham of the south,
now
Vietnam. It was adopted after years of being abandoned as a
Buddhist
shrine and still contains a Buddhist monastery on the
grounds. It
remains one of the largest religious sites in the world and
still is an
important symbol of Khmer culture. In fact the profile of
Angkor Wat is
on the new Cambodian flag.
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