Ta Keow Temple is a temple-mountain in Angkor built during the reign of King Jayavarman V in 975 AD. Historians and archaeologists have speculated that the temple could be the first one in Angkor to be built entirely out of sandstone.
Work on the temple continued throughout the reign of King Jayavarman V, but stopped in 1010 AD when Suryavarman I became king. Because of that, the temple is somewhat incomplete and un-carved throughout, giving it a somewhat rigorous look.
The temple contains five towers arranged in a quincunx pattern. Ta Keo was initially called Hemasringagiri (Mountain with Golden Peaks) and was built to represent Mount Meru, a scared mountain in Hindu cosmology. The mountain is considered to be the center of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes.
At almost 22 meters in height, Ta Keo is one of Angkor’s tallest and biggest temples. Its base covers an area approximately 122 by 106 meters and the outer moat stretched 255 by 195 meters, but it has now faded away. The temple is situated on an east-west axis and on a walkway half a kilometer long, connecting its eastern entrance to a landing stage on the Eastern Baray (a now dry artificial body of water).
The inner closure of the second terrace houses a continuous gallery, which contains windows towards the interior. The gallery has no doors and seems to be built for a purely decorative purpose.
The eastern side of the second terrace are two building similar but shorter than the ones in the galleries of the first terrace. There are two small sandstone libraries towards the central axis.
The final pyramid rises 14 meters in three narrow steps from the second terrace. The lack of decorations makes the pyramid look even bigger. Its base is 60 square meters while the summit is 47 square meters. The stairways leading up to the summit are continuous and very steep. There is a statue of Nandi (a bull that Shiva rides) at the eastern summit stairway.
Angkor Thom is a temple and Southeast Asia history enthusiast’s paradise. There are reportedly over 1000 temples and ruins in the Angkor area, ranging from non-descript piles of brick to the grand Angkor Wat. With our Angkor Discovery tour, we can take you to the area’s most interesting temples and ensure that nothing of interest will be missed. You can also see Exotssimo’s Cambodia tours page for other excursions into the wonders of the country. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
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