Culture · c. 1113–1150 CE
Angkor Wat and the Khmer Empire
Angkor (Siem Reap, Cambodia)
The Khmer kings who ruled from Angkor from 802 built a vast 'hydraulic city' of reservoirs and canals; a 2007 survey found it was the largest pre-industrial city by area, with infrastructure spread over at least 1,000 km². King Suryavarman II (r.
1113–c. 1150) built Angkor Wat, a temple to Vishnu that is the largest religious complex in the world, and from 1181 Jayavarman VII added the walled city of Angkor Thom and made Mahayana Buddhism the state religion.
Why it mattered
Angkor shows the scale a tropical rice-farming civilization could reach; it remained the Khmer capital until Ayutthaya sacked it in 1431 and much of its population moved south.
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