The 10 Most Iconic Landmarks in Siem Reap
10 landmarks with verified facts and stories
Angkor Sunrise & Sunset Spots
Various locations, Angkor Archaeological Park, Siem Reap
The sunrise at Angkor Wat is the single most popular tourist experience in Cambodia — thousands of visitors gather at the reflection pools before dawn to watch the sun rise behind the temple's five towers, silhouetting them against an orange sky and reflecting the scene in the still water below.
Angkor Thom (Great City)
Angkor Archaeological Park, Siem Reap
Angkor Thom was the last and most enduring capital of the Khmer Empire — a walled city of 9 square kilometres (larger than most medieval European cities) enclosed by an 8-metre-high wall and a moat, entered through five monumental gates, each flanked by rows of stone gods and demons pulling a giant naga (serpent) in a representation of the Hindu creation myth, the Churning of the Ocean of Milk.
Angkor Wat
Angkor Archaeological Park, Siem Reap
Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world — a 12th-century Hindu temple complex covering 162.
Apsara Dance Performance
National Road 63, Siem Reab, Siem Reap, Cambodia
Apsara dance is Cambodia's classical dance tradition — an 1,000-year-old courtly art form depicting the celestial dancers (apsaras) carved into the walls of Angkor Wat and Bayon, performed by teenage girls who train from age 6 at the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh or the Apsara Angkor School.
Baphuon
Taphul Street, Svay Dankum, Siem Reap, Cambodia
Baphuon is a massive 11th-century temple-mountain inside Angkor Thom dedicated to Shiva — the temple was built around 1060 under King Udayadityavarman II and originally rose three pyramidal levels to a bronze-clad tower that Chinese envoy Zhou Daguan (who visited Angkor in 1296) called one of the great wonders of the empire.
Bayon Temple
Angkor Thom, Angkor Archaeological Park, Siem Reap
Bayon is the most enigmatic temple at Angkor — a late 12th-century Buddhist temple at the exact centre of Angkor Thom (the walled city that succeeded Angkor Wat as the Khmer capital) whose 216 enormous stone faces, each carved with a serene, slightly smiling expression, gaze outward in every direction from the temple's towers.
Phare Cambodian Circus
B41, Ung Oeun Street, Svay Dankum, Siem Reap, Cambodia
Phare, the Cambodian Circus, is the most acclaimed performing arts company in Cambodia — a circus-theatre troupe that combines acrobatics, music, dance, and storytelling to tell Cambodian stories, including the traumatic history of the Khmer Rouge era that the country is still processing.
Phnom Bakheng Sunset
Phnom Bakheng, Angkor
Phnom Bakheng is a hilltop temple-mountain between Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom that was built in the late 9th century as the state temple of the first city of Angkor (Yasodharapura, founded by King Yasovarman I around 900 AD) — predating Angkor Wat by over 200 years.
Srah Srang Sunrise
Srah Srang, Angkor
Srah Srang ('Royal Bath') is a 10th-century reservoir (baray) on the eastern side of the Small Circuit, measuring 700 by 350 metres, and is Siem Reap's finest alternative sunrise spot — the sun rises directly over the water from behind distant palm trees, reflecting in the perfectly still surface, and is accompanied by a bird chorus rather than the shouts of thousands of tourists at Angkor Wat.
Ta Prohm (Tomb Raider Temple)
Angkor Archaeological Park, Siem Reap
Ta Prohm is the temple that the jungle reclaimed — a 12th-century Buddhist monastery that was deliberately left in the condition the French conservators found it, with massive silk-cotton and strangler fig trees growing through the stone walls, their roots prying apart carved galleries and wrapping around doorways in a slow-motion embrace between architecture and nature.
Explore iconic in Siem Reap
GPS-guided narration at every landmark. Tap a spot on the map, hear the story. Every fact verified.