| About Angkor |
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The Angkor Archaeological Park is truly amazing, with hundreds of sites scattered over more than 400 square kilometers and including some of the most impressive achievements in all of human history. You are guaranteed to be impressed and moved by your experiences here. In order to make the most of it it's recommended to do some background reading, and there are some excellent resources available to help you learn about the civilisation of Angkor, which lasted from the 9th century to the 15th century and had an empire, centered on Angkor itself, which stretched across most of mainland Southeast Asia at its peak. To summarise all of this material here would be a huge task, so here are some references and links to resources where people have done an excellent job of it already:
GuidebooksLonely Planet's Cambodia, by Nick Ray Angkor, by Dawn Rooney Ancient Angkor, by Claude Jacques and Michael Freeman Guide to the Monuments of Angkor, by Maurice Glaize, a slightly dated but still classic work available freely online History Books A History of Cambodia, by David Chandler The Khmer Empire, by Claude Jacques and Philippe Lafond Angkor and the Khmer Civilisation, by Michael Coe The Civilisation of Angkor, by Charles Higham The Khmers, by Bruno Dagens
Online ResourcesGoogle Scholar has a good selection of academic articles, many available for download as pdf The Greater Angkor Project maintains a categorised bibliography of works on Angkor Guide to the Monuments of Angkor, by Maurice Glaize, a slightly dated but still classic work available freely online The New York Times has a selection of good articles on Siem Reap The Canby Publication has the collection of information of Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, Battambong, and Sihanouk ville The flickr web site has an amazing collection of photos of Angkor Tales of Asia web site has up-to-the-minute advice on practicalities such as getting there and away, and places to stay Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree forum includes a section on Cambodia http://www.siemreaptaxi.blogspot.com/ The Apsara Authority's web site contains background and administrative information about the Archaeological Park UNESCO's World Heritage page for Angkor has some information about the site and its management Jinja and Andy Brouwer maintain good blogs about all things Cambodian The Centre for Khmer Studies maintains an excellent library in Siem Reap, as does the EFEO. Both are open to the public. Yale's Cambodian Genocide Project houses a large range of documents and information related to the Khmer Rouge regime Stay Another Day has a useful list of things to do and see in Cambodia |