Angkor Wat Map: the Temple Plan and the Park Around It

The moat, the wall and the way in from the west

Everything begins with the water. The moat is roughly 190 m wide, its perimeter runs over 5 km, and inside it stands an outer wall 3.6 km long. The enclosure faces west, while most Angkorian temples face east. This whole plan was laid out in the early 12th century for King Suryavarman II, who meant it to serve as his state temple and then as his mausoleum, with the dedication going to Vishnu first and turning Buddhist before that century was out.

One formal approach crosses the moat: a causeway 350 m long, aimed straight at the central towers. The two ponds lie either side of it, level with the third flight of steps beside the outer libraries. Only the northern one holds water, following its restoration in 2020; the four ponds drawn inside the cruciform cloister further in are dry. The northern causeway pond is where the dawn crowd gathers, barely a third of the way in on the plan.

Stand on that causeway at the spring or autumn equinox and the sun comes up on the axis the whole plan is drawn around, directly behind the central tower. The gate here opens to visitors at 5:00 AM for sunrise (Srah Srang and Phnom Bakheng also admit visitors from 5:00 AM).

From the galleries up to the Bakan

Past the causeway the plan tightens at every stage: an outer gallery of 187 m by 215 m, the Preah Poan cruciform cloister behind it, a second enclosure of 100 m by 115 m, then the 60 m square Bakan, with the tower standing 43 m above its own base and 65 m above the ground. Three rectangular galleries sit one above the other.

On the plan the way up to that top square is on the eastern flank, a wooden stairway, and it starts admitting people at about 6:40 AM rather than with the temple below. Numbers up there are held to groups of 100 at a time, each given 15 to 30 minutes, dress has to be modest, and on four days a month, the Buddhist holy days, the level belongs to Cambodian visitors at worship. Check what is open on the day, since this is a working religious site.

The bas-reliefs are arranged by compass side, so walk the outer gallery anticlockwise from the north-west corner and you take them in the order they were meant to be read, as listed below.

• West gallery, the side the causeway delivers you to: the Kurukshetra War from the Mahabharata and the Battle of Lanka from the Ramayana
• South gallery: the procession of Suryavarman II, the only historical scene, beside the panel of the 32 hells and 37 heavens
• East gallery: the Churning of the Sea of Milk, Vishnu directing 88 devas and 92 asuras as they haul on the serpent Vasuki
• North gallery: Krishna's victory over the asura Bana

Where the other temples sit on the park map

An Angkor Wat map that stops at the moat leaves out almost everything. The UNESCO property inscribed in 1992 runs to 40,100 hectares and holds around 72 major monuments plus several hundred minor sites, and the temple inside the moat accounts for 162.6 hectares of that.

North of Angkor Wat stands Angkor Thom, the walled city, with the Bayon at its centre. The Bayon was the state temple of Jayavarman VII and does not open until 7:30 AM. Phnom Bakheng, the hill temple about 1.5 km away, was the principal temple of Yasovarman's capital Yasodharapura at the end of the 9th century, two centuries older than Angkor Wat.

East and north-east the park spreads out. Ta Prohm, the one left with trees growing through it, stands about 3 km north-east of Angkor Wat and some 12 km from the city; its stele dates the foundation to 1186, when Jayavarman VII dedicated the monastery of Rajavihara to his mother. Preah Khan sits north-east of Angkor Thom beside the Jayatataka baray. Banteay Srei, consecrated on 22 April 967 AD, lies well out at about 25 km north-east of the main group, near the hill of Phnom Dei.

Siem Reap is south of all of it, about 6 km from the temple and roughly 12 minutes by road. The main Angkor Enterprise counter stands on that same route, where Apsara Road meets Road 60, about 4 km out from the centre, and a counter named Angkor Pavis works right by the Angkor Wat entrance. Pan the interactive map above instead of counting turnings; the park runs north from town.

Why the distances mean a driver and a set route

Put the numbers end to end and the day explains itself. The loop through Angkor Wat, Srah Srang, Ta Prohm and Ta Keo into Angkor Thom by the Victory Gate measures about 17 km (10.5 miles). Swing the line further east through Pre Rup, East Mebon, Neak Pean and Preah Khan and the loop on the map stretches to about 25 km (15.6 miles), closing through the north gate at the Bayon. On top of that come 6 km out of town and 6 km back, and Banteay Srei adds a separate run of roughly 25 to 30 km from Siem Reap. You will be driven between the sites.

Opening hours pull the route around as much as the kilometres do. The temple at the centre of this map takes visitors 5:00 AM to 5:30 PM. Four other points on the plan, the Bayon, the Baphuon, Ta Prohm and Banteay Srei, stay closed until 7:30 AM; Preah Khan works from 7:00 AM through to 6:30 PM; Phnom Bakheng is listed to 7:00 PM, but plan to be down by the park's 6:30 PM closing; the park boundary itself admits from 5:00 AM and closes at 6:30 PM. Build the route around those hours and you spend far less time waiting at gates.

Two practical rules belong on the same map. Keep the moves between sites in daylight, and stay on main routes and marked paths in the rural areas around the temples. With the geography clear, the circuits page is where you choose which loop fits which day.

What the layout tells you before you pick your days

For a dawn start the detail that matters is that the causeway and the restored northern pond face the right way, and that Angkor Wat opens at 5:00 AM for sunrise. The time you need to be standing on that causeway slides by close to an hour through the year: the sun clears the horizon at about 05:39 at the June solstice, about 06:08 at the March equinox, and not until about 06:31 in mid-January.

Other early viewpoints are there on the map if you want them: Srah Srang opens from 5:00 AM and Pre Rup from 6:00 AM. At the other end of the day, Preah Khan stays open to 6:30 PM and Phnom Bakheng is listed to 7:00 PM, but plan to be down by the park's 6:30 PM closing; both are still working after Angkor Wat has shut. Sunset falls at roughly 18:34 in June, 18:15 around the March equinox and 17:43 in December.

Dress for the whole route before you leave the hotel, shoulders and knees covered. Revealing clothing is not allowed in sacred places under the visitor code of conduct, and admission to religious sites can be refused on that basis, with Angkor Wat named among them. Every gate drawn on this map is a checkpoint where staff scan the pass before you go through, so keep it on you right round the loop.

Questions people ask

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