Angkor Wat reverses the usual eastward orientation: its entrance, causeway and principal approach face west.
Almost every Khmer temple faces east. Angkor Wat’s westward orientation has been explained by its dedication to Vishnu, associated with the west, and by its probable role as the funerary temple of its king: the bas-reliefs are arranged to be read walking anticlockwise, the direction of funerary rites. Both explanations may be true. The western approach is a causeway some 350 metres long across the moat and the inner enclosure, lined with balustrades in the form of serpents (nagas), the bridge between the world of men and the world of the gods.
Set a vertical rod at the centre of the levelled site, draw a circle round it, mark where the tip of its shadow crosses the circle before and after noon, and join the two marks: that line runs east–west.
E–W = chord through the morning and afternoon shadow points; N–S ⟂ through its midpoint
Read the diagram from the centre outward: Brahmā at the heart, then a ring of the gods, a ring of human concerns, and on the outside the lesser spirits; the holiest function goes at the centre and the most worldly at the edge.
81 padas = 9 (Brahmā) + 16 + 24 + 32
Build the state temple as a stepped mountain with five towers in a quincunx (one at the centre and four at the corners), representing the five peaks of Mount Meru, surrounded by walls and a moat for the mountains and ocean that ring the world.
Enclose the central mountain in rectangular galleries, one within the other, each on a higher terrace, with gopuras at the cardinal points and pavilions at the corners.
Angkor Wat: galleries ≈ 187 × 215 m, 100 × 115 m, 60 × 60 m
Set the state temple at the exact centre of the city, where the avenues from the gates cross, and the king’s palace to its north.
Divide the ground inside the walls by embankments into a regular grid of blocks, each with its ponds and its raised mounds for houses.
Cite this page Chris Paton, “Angkor Wat faces west”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/angkor-west. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.