Khmer Timeline

500 CE – 1431 CE · 4 sites

Khmer imperial archaeology is temples plus the hydraulic city around them. Angkor Wat LiDAR surveys (2012, 2015) showed Greater Angkor as a low-density urban complex of roads, house mounds, and barays — not a jungle of isolated shrines.

All sites in this period

Featured

Country Record

Known by the Most Names in Cambodia

Angkor Wat

1113 CE – 1218 CE

Angkor Wat, the world’s largest religious monument, was built as a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu by Khmer king Suryavarman II, later evolving into a Buddhist complex.

322

High Medieval

89

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Country Record

Longest Continuously Occupied Site in Cambodia

Angkor Thom

1181 CE – 1431 CE

The last great walled capital of the Khmer Empire, built by King Jayavarman VII at the end of the 12th century CE as the centrepiece of a massive Buddhist building programme following decades of warfare. At its heart stands the Bayon Temple, its 54 towers carved with 216 enormous, serenely smiling stone faces — among the most instantly recognisable images in world archaeology — surrounded by the Terrace of the Elephants, the Terrace of the Leper King, and the royal palace precinct of Phimeanakas.

32

MedievalHigh Medieval

66

Wat Phou

500 CE – 1300 CE

A Khmer Hindu sanctuary complex on the slopes of Phou Kao in Champasak, southern Laos, aligned to a sacred spring and linga mountain. UNESCO-listed with the associated ancient city of Shrestrapura on the Mekong plain.

111

Early MedievalMedievalHigh Medieval

57

Country Record

Oldest Temple in Cambodia

Preah Vihear

890 CE – 1150 CE

A Khmer cliff-top temple dedicated to Shiva on the Dangrek escarpment, looking north over the Cambodian plain. Built mainly in the 9th–12th centuries and inscribed by UNESCO; long contested at the Thai–Cambodian border.

111

Early MedievalMedievalHigh Medieval

56