Phnom Bakheng Temple at Siem Reap

Located around 400m south Angkor Thom, the main attraction at Phnom Bakheng is the sunset view over Angkor wat. For many years, the whole affair turned into something of a circus, with crowds oftourists ascending the slopes of the hill and jockeying for space once on top. However, number have now been restricted to just 300 visitor any one time. In practice, this means arriving pretty (4am) for sunset to guarantee a spot. Some prefer to visit in the early morning, When it's cool (and crowds are light), 

to climb the hill. That said, the sunset over the Western Baray is very impressive from here.

Phnom Bakheng also lays claim to being home to the first of the temple-mountains built in the vicinity of Angkor . Yasovarman I chose Phnom  Bakheng over the Roluosarea, wherer the earlier capital (and temple mountains) had been located.

       The temple-mountain has five tiers, with seven levels (including the base and the summit) . At the base are - or were - 44 towers. The summit of the temple has four towers at the cardinal point of the compass as well as a central sanctuary. All of these numbers are of symbolic significance. The seven levels, for example, represent the seven Hindu heavens, while the total number of towers, excluding the central sanctuary, is 108, a particularly auspicious number and one that correlates to the lunar calendar.  

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