Phre Khan Temple in Angkor Wat temple complex

Phre Khan Temple in Angkor Wat temple complex strongly resembles a ruined ancient city and, actually, it was that. As Ta Phrom, Phre Khan was a Buddhist monastery and a university, as well as one of the most populated centers of the capital of the Khmer Empire.

Within Phre Khan you can easily discern the features of a rather large city of that period. It has stone-paved streets and squares. The streets are lined by temple buildings and colonnades. From the external wall of Phre Khan through the jungles and to its center a wide road leads ending at the large square at the entrance of Phre Khan temple.

Phre Khan Temple was built by Jayavarman VII at the very beginning of 11th century. It is there that the court of the king was located before the construction of the huge complex of Angkor Thom was finished, where there eventually appeared such famous structures as the Bayon Temple and the Elephant Terrace.

At Phre Khan Temple there remained in good condition not only the inside buildings but also the external walls. As at Ta Phrom there you can see mighty trees growing on the walls and roofs of the temple buildings, though these ones don’t produce such a great impression. At each entrance to the inside of Phre Khan there remained the huge bas-reliefs of the bird Garuda. As is known, the images of this mythical bird are widely spread in the South-East Asia, and in Indonesia Garuda is the national emblem.