Welcome to Angkor Wat. This is the largest religious monument in the world
in UNESCO World Heritage Site. We're getting up at 4:45 a.m. to see the
sunrise first we stopped at the ticket concession stand where you can buy a
one-day three day or seven day pass we want with the three-day pass at $62 I
just got my ticket they take a photo
and they take credit card which is really good.
And now we are going to ... the temple!
Now time for the sunrise. I set up my camera on a tripod and filmed from 5
a.m. to 6 a.m. we visited in September March and September are the vernal and
autumnal equinoxes and the Sun rises behind the pinnacle of the central tower,
a testament to the genius architecture of Angkor Wat. The French
"discovered it" in the nineteenth century but the Cambodian people knew it was
there the entire time, they just didn't go inside due to superstition and the
belief that there were spirits inside. Let's find out more about the history.
Angkor Wat!
We just saw the sunrise at Angkor Wat. It was absolutely beautiful.
September and March are the best times to see it because of the long shadows and the equinox.
Just beautiful it just glows bright yellow. These are
all the tuk-tuk you can get here by tuk-tuk or by taxi.
Built in the year 1113 - 1150. It took time to build, 37 year never completed. And 7000
labor. Many many labor not many people they call them P.O.W is
actually prisoner of war.There are 3 kind of prisoner: Viet, Siem, Cham.
Viet, Vietnamese. Siem Thai, Cham Muslim. They call them POWs from the hostages
like slave this temple built in 1100 built for the god vishnu the king want
to put the name of Vishnu in the middle of the name - Paramavishnuloka
Parama, like paradise, Vishnu is name of vishnu god, loka means in the world
this one facing west, five different story, but they chose one. One says temple of the
kingdom facing west because of the river at the east. River. Another one said built
facing west because the temple built facing west to east and east is left
unfinished. You will see, the east side nothing there,
just greenery, tall tree, forest greenery and another one said facing west it's easy
for the king himself come out and come in to pray here.
Every Sabbat, they came here to pray, you know Sabbat
full moon new moon Sabbat and another one said bear facing west because it's
temple it's a tomb temple for burial tomb temple and the last one - they
built this temple facing west maybe he wanted to extend the country and enlarge
the country two the east. Five different story, they choose one - tomb
temple. hmm like sunset. Some people call here funeral temple
this temple built facing west and decorated with five doorway in the west and
the east side the back side only one doorway. You get it? East side, back side,
one doorway. The west side the main entrance have 5 doorway, you see
here one over here two three four five to one in one in the middle for Royale
one for priests one for the officer, two the both sides on the end for commoner.
Three kind of animal, uses the same the commoner doorway. Three kind of animal consist of
horses, elephant and cow. Horses, elephant and cow. In that time the
commoner and animal, the same level. because of the caste system from India.
Those are the bullet holes.
up here to see. That was from the Khmer Rouge? Khmer Rouge.
This is the Hindu God Vishnu.
oh she's smiling yeah wow this is very well preserved this is the library they
wrote on papyrus and then this is the temple the pool is for astronomy during
During the civil war in the 70s Angkor Wat was surrounded by land mines then in 1992 it
became a UNESCO site and only 7,000 intrepid tourists visited now 2 million
Tells the story in Sanskrit, Hindus story.
We are on the top. The second and third gallery were never completed so there's no
carvings up here. The King stairway it's built on a 70-degree we just climbed up
to the top made it to the top of the staircase and now over here you see the
jungle look at this jungle really high up and then on this side you can see
facing the west we came all the way from the jungles of Angkor just to find the
booby traps I mean buried treasure. There's buried
treasure under there you just have to step on the right stones you have to be
careful not to step on the ones with the holes or else that could happen careful
not to rub up against her
'Cause it will unleash the booby trap.
Look what we found!. The buried treasure! During the 12th century when Angkor Wat was
built the Khmer Empire was much like the Roman Empire they covered much of the
East including most of Thailand Vietnam Laos and Burma.
Hindu story, this is Vishnu. he is churning the ocean
turning it into holy water. These are all the men churning the ocean.
Heaven, earth, hell.
These are all the people who are being killed
They are cuffed, this guy is being bitten by a snake
They are all dying in various ways.
They are shiny because people touch them
and because it was colored as red in the 16th century the color of death. During the Civil
War Pol Pot killed people the same way by
torturing them like this in the cuffs got the idea from this. This area is supported
by concrete because the b-52's came here in the shrapnel
caused a lot of damage this is all from the b-52s and this area collapsed so it's
being held up by buttresses and they're measuring how far it is moving every year.
There's some damage to the temple from the Civil War the guns and the bombs
came through here it was also some acid rain and erosion.
In the time of the Khmer Rouge in the 70s the people had to flee or else they
would get killed so a lot of them went into the jungles like this and they
survived from eating insects tarantulas and scorpions and other bugs stay tuned
and turn on notifications because in the next video we're going to show you where
the stones from Angkor Wat originated from.