Ta Keo Temple

Date: late 10^th century to the early 11^th century

King: Jayavarman V (968-1001)

And Suryavarman I (1002-1050)

Religion: Hinduism (dedicated to god Shiva)

Style: Khleangs

Clearance work by Mr. Henri Marchal (1920-1920)

Ta Keo Temple is one of the largest monuments in the Angkor Park which was never finished and the reason is still unknown. One theory suggests that the temple was struck by lightning. This temple separated from the other monuments in the Angkor group because of the decoration and especially the 5 towers were made of granite which is brittle than another. One said all the 5 towers were originally covered by coating of copper. But today nothing left and referring to the sandstone inscription was found in the temple had mentioned the temple named Hemasringagiri that means the mountain with golden peaks.

Ta Keo Temple had a rectangular plan and stood on a high base with 5 levels supported the 5 square towers, 4 towers at the corner and 1 tower in the center of the plan, and it has a steep stairway on each side of the 4 side on the base. The temple was originally surrounded by a moat but now dries up (measurement 195m wide by 255m long), there are 2 sandstone gallery walls stood on the first and the second level enclosed the temple (the first level 106m wide by 122m long and 2.3m in height, the second level is 75m wide by 80m long and 5.5m in height). Well it is possible to go up by any stairway but the steps is steep, on the top you could see the beautiful landscape and also the summit of the Angkor Wat emerges from the jungle as well, sometimes it is a good place to see sunset because less crowd.