Visible from the air (and most postcards of Cambodia), the Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom are the most-visited tourist destinations in Cambodia. The sites are truly massive as they are about the same size as the modern city of Siem Reap. I don’t know the specific purpose of any of these buildings so I’m not going to add captions and pretend I know what I’m talking about.
Road to Angkor Wat 
Sunrise at Angkor Wat 
Noon at Angkor Thom 
Exploring the sites by foot takes days so make sure you’re well-equipped with comfortable clothing to walk several hours a day. Though it may be tiring, it is also an extremely rewarding experience of discovering history, art, and culture for yourself. Going with kids is great because they can pretend they’re Lara Croft, or Dora the Explorer, or whatever they watch nowadays.
The scale of all the structures are truly immense; Angkor Wat is even the largest religious monument in the world. The buildings are so large that visitors have to climb up a long flight of stairs to reach them almost as if it was demanding your reverence. Walls of structures are so ornate that it’s hard to tell where the masonry art ends and where practical spaces begin; it’s like walking into a giant sculpture of a city.
City is the right word to describe the area since it was the ancient capital of the Khmer Empire that spread along the Mekong River. Like in Rome, I found it difficult to imagine how a once-mighty empire could be survived by just tales and ruins today.
