Pictures From the World's Largest Religious Structure, Plus!

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Visiting Angkor Wat at dawn is something like a religious pilgrimage. Hundreds (if not thousands) of people from all over the world come to the place just after 5:00am each morning, piling in to see the sun rise behind the most incredible temple of the ancient world.

I was one of them.

My Day

I'd left the monastery at 4:30am so I could get into the temples by opening time. I had a rented bicycle and a map.

The temples and other ruins here are the remains of the ancient capitol of the Angkor empire. The Khmer people once ruled almost all of Southeast Asia from here. The grounds are massive.

I saw the dawn at Angkor Wat and spent the entire day riding from temple to temple before joining the crowds again at Phnom Bakeng for sunset. It was intense.

I'll let the pictures tell the story.

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Photos

There are still hundreds of people living within the walls of this ancient city
...and this kid has a giant pig

Comments

[halefg]

Nice pics
A awesome collection on the Ankor Wat pics! But be careful of making such statement as 'World's largest ...', some people might disagree with the subjective statement. Is it larger than the Vatican City? Macchu Picchu? Teotihuacan? Borobudur? Mecca? [put your site connected to a religion here].

[Nicholas John Nakis]

actually...
according to the Guinness Book of World Records, Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in the world... maybe I'll tweak that title.

[Aaron Brown]

cool pics. The moon looks interestingly small there.

[Humza]

Thanks for the article.
Interestesting article. It was a fabulous read :). Just wondering, aer you interested in moderating on my forum? The URL is http://OurIslamic.com If you are, please send me an email at [e-mail].

[Nicholas John Nakis]

I don't really like being on the internet, so I'll have to say no. Thanks for the invite, though!