Tagged “temple-mountain”
HIGH WONDERAngkor Wat
How did a 12th-century kingdom quarry, move, and raise several million sandstone blocks — some hauled nearly 40 kilometers from a mountain quarry — into a temple-mountain so precisely built and aligned that its central tower still catches the sunrise at the equinox?
early-to-mid 12th century CE · Angkor, Siem Reap Province, CambodiaAdded July 2026
HIGH WONDERPrasat Thom, Koh Ker
How did a usurper king raise a 36-meter, seven-tiered stone pyramid and more than 180 other monuments at a remote forest capital in well under two decades, and what happened to the giant lingam that once crowned its summit?
928-944 CE (Koh Ker's brief period as Khmer capital) · Koh Ker, Preah Vihear Province, CambodiaAdded July 2026
Ta Keo
Why did the Khmer state abandon its own state temple mid-construction, leaving a five-tier sandstone pyramid permanently bare — and what does that unfinished shell reveal about how an Angkorian temple-mountain was actually assembled, block by block, before the carving ever began?
late 10th century CE · Angkor, Siem Reap Province, CambodiaAdded July 2026