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The area now known as Cambodia (once known as Kampuchea) was once occupied by the Khmer Empire, a powerful, visionary and ancient dynasty that flourished in the 6th — 15th centuries.

Recent history has been less kind to the country, culminating in the devastating Kampuchean holocaust instigated by Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge in 1975 which led to over 2.5 million deaths from famine, disease and maltreatment. The brutal regime lasted four years before invading Vietnamese forces reached the capital and overthrew the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot and his supporters fled to the jungle bordering Thailand and he died in 1998.

Pol Pot’s death and the subsequent surrendering of the Khmer Rouge has given Cambodia a real chance for peace for the first time in 30 years. There are many signs that Cambodia is shaking off its past and looking toward the future with a cautious confidence. There is increasing development and modernisation in urban areas, foreign aid is flowing in and international investors are beginning to back business ventures there.

During the Angkorian period the ruling god—kings (devarajas) built imposing temples as a way of asserting their divinity. As different kings came and went, so new temples were built, and cities were built around them. What remains today are the stone—built monuments of that period, a legacy of more than one hundred temples built between the 9th and 15th centuries.

Spiritually, politically and geographically Angkor was at the heart of the Khmer Empire. The world renowned temples of Angkor, in north—west Cambodia are spread out over about 40 miles around the village of Siem Reap, which is itself approximately 190 miles from the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.

The first thing tourists run to see when they come to Cambodia is the vast complex temples at Angkor Wat in the north—west of the country.

It is one of the great archaeological and cultural sites of Asia. For hundreds of years Cambodian peasants who lived on the edge of a thick jungle around the Tonle Sap lake reported findings which puzzled French colonialists who arrived in Indo—China in the 1860s. The peasants’ stories of ’temples built by gods or by giants’ were dismissed as folktale. Until one day in 1861 the French naturalist Henri Mouhot stumbled upon this ’lost city’ and the legend became fact. Streams of explorers, historians and archaelogists came to Angkor to explain the meaning of these vast buildings.

Built in the twelfth century as a temple and mausoleum for King Suryavarman II (who reigned from 1113 � 1150) Angkor Wat represents the height of inspiration and perfection in Khmer art, combining architectural harmony and detailed artistry. It is surrounded by a moat 570 feet wide and about four miles long. Your first sighting of Angkor Wat will definitely be one that you will remember forever. It’s a truly stunning sight.

Angkor Thom, only 2km north of Angkor Wat, was the last great capital of the Angkor era. Like Angkor Wat, it was built during the late 12th century and early thirteenth century. It is an immense city enclosed by four defensive walls 8m high and 3km long on each side. A moat, 100m wide, surrounds the city. This was home to over a million inhabitants. It was an architectural masterpiece. Unfortunately, due to its construction being predominately in wood, much of it has weathered away, but the stone religious monuments remain as a testament to the city’s grand scale.