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Angkor Wat is built in the Khmer Empire
The world's largest religious monument by area
King Suryavarman II of the Khmer Empire had Angkor Wat built in the early 12th century. It is often described as the largest religious monument in the world.
Suryavarman II ruled from 1113 to about 1150 and is remembered as a temple builder who also fought wars against neighbors. Angkor Wat was begun in the first half of the 12th century, and many scholars think it was meant to serve as his funerary temple. It was dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu, unlike many earlier Khmer temples dedicated to Shiva.
The complex covers roughly 400 acres, with a moat about three miles around and a central tower nearly 200 feet high. Its long bas-relief galleries show scenes from Hindu epics and a procession of the king's army.
The monument later became a Buddhist site and was never fully abandoned, which helps explain why it is so well preserved. The 'largest' claim refers to the area of the religious complex; other temples may rival it by other measures, such as height or volume.
Construction required enormous resources: the sandstone blocks were carried to the site from quarries in the Kulen hills, according to common scholarly accounts. Angkor Wat is also depicted on the flag of modern Cambodia, and UNESCO inscribed the Angkor site as a World Heritage Site in 1992.