Angkor Wat Timeline

Historical records show that Chinese envoy Zhou Daguan and traveller Zheng He visited Angkor Wat in the 13th–14th centuries.

In the 16th century, Portuguese traders and missionaries discovered a vast stone city hidden in the northern Cambodian forests that had seemed abandoned for over 150 years.

One of the first recorded Western visitors was António da Madalena, a Capuchin friar who explored the ruins of Angkor Wat in 1586.

Fourteen inscriptions dated from the 17th century, discovered in the Angkor area, state that Japanese Buddhist pilgrims had established small settlements alongside Khmer locals.

One inscription tells of Ukondayu Kazufusa, a Japanese pilgrim who celebrated the Khmer New Year at Angkor Wat in 1632.

The oldest surviving plan of Angkor Wat dates to 1715 and is credited to Fujiwara Tadayoshi.

In 1860, the temple was effectively rediscovered by French naturalist and explorer Henri Mouhot with the help of French missionary Father Charles-Émile Bouillevaux, bringing it to wide attention in Europe.

Image source: Henri Mouhot

In 1861, German anthropologist Adolf Bastian undertook a four-year trip to Southeast Asia; his account, The People of East Asia, ran to six volumes and was published in 1868.

Image source: Adolf Bastian

France adopted Cambodia as a protectorate on 11 August 1863 partly due to the artistic legacy of Angkor Wat and other Khmer monuments, leading Cambodia to reclaim northwestern lands including Siem Reap from Siamese rule (1795–1907).

Image source: French protectorate of Cambodia

Mouhot's work was published posthumously in 1864 through the Royal Geographical Society with descriptions of Angkor under the title Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China, Siam, Cambodia and Laos.

Angkor Wat caught the attention of a wider European audience when the pavilion of the French protectorate of Cambodia recreated life-size replicas of the temple at French colonial and universal exhibitions in Paris and Marseille between 1889 and 1937.

Conservation d'Angkor (Angkor Conservancy) was established by the École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO) in 1908, launching considerable efforts in the 20th century to clear plant overgrowth and restore the temple complex.

Image source: French School of the Far East

In 1927, Sappho Marchal published a study cataloging the remarkable diversity of hair, headdresses, garments, stance, jewellery, and decorative flowers depicted in the temple's reliefs, concluding they were based on actual practices of the Angkor period.

Image source: Sappho

In 1934, conservator George Trouvé excavated the pit beneath the central shrine: filled with sand and water, it had already been robbed of its treasure, but he found a sacred foundation deposit of gold leaf two metres above ground level.

Cambodia gained independence from France on 9 November 1953 and has controlled Angkor Wat since then.

Image source: Cambodia

Work on Angkor was abandoned during the Khmer Rouge era and the Conservation d'Angkor was disbanded in 1975.

Image source: Khmer Rouge

Between 1986 and 1992, the Archaeological Survey of India carried out restoration work on the temple as France did not recognise the Cambodian government at the time.

Image source: Archaeological Survey of India

In 1992, the Angkor area was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Simultaneously, Angkor Wat was listed in UNESCO's World Heritage in Danger following appeals by Norodom Sihanouk and UNESCO; the danger listing was later removed in 2004.

Image source: Angkor

Restoration was coordinated by the International Coordinating Committee for the Safeguarding and Development of the Historic Site of Angkor (ICC-Angkor), established in 1993 under UNESCO, with various international agencies involved.

Zoning of the area was designated to protect the Angkor site in 1994, the Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap (APSARA) was established in 1995, and a law to protect Cambodian heritage was passed in 1996.

Image source: APSARA

As part of international conservation efforts involving teams from France, India, Japan and China, the west facade of the upper level of Angkor Wat was buttressed by scaffolding in 2002.

A Japanese team completed the restoration of the north library of the outer enclosure of Angkor Wat in 2005.

In December 2015, a research team from the University of Sydney announced the discovery of a previously unseen ensemble of buried towers built and demolished during the construction of Angkor Wat, as well as a massive wooden-fortified structure of unknown purpose on its south side.

The site was managed by SOKIMEX between 1990 and 2016, which rented it from the Cambodian government.

In 1993 there were only 7,650 visitors to the site; by 2004, 561,000 foreign visitors arrived in Siem Reap province, over a million in 2007, over two million by 2012, and 2.6 million by 2018.

In 2001, tourism revenue incentives resulted in the concept of the 'Angkor Tourist City', developed around traditional Khmer architecture with leisure and tourist facilities and luxurious hotels capable of accommodating large numbers of tourists.

Image source: Siem Reap

At the ASEAN Tourism Forum 2012, it was agreed that Borobudur and Angkor Wat would become sister sites and sister provinces.

Image source: Borobudur

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic led to travel restrictions worldwide that severely impacted Cambodia's tourism sector. Angkor Wat reopened to international visitors in late 2021 but received only 280,000 tourists in 2022 versus 2.6 million in 2018.

Image source: COVID-19 pandemic in Cambodia

In 2023, the temple saw an increase in visitor numbers over the previous year, having received over 400,000 tourists by late July.

Tourists reenacting the 2011 game series Temple Run in mid-2024 for social media drew criticism from conservationists who warned that it risks damaging Angkor Wat's structures and carvings and is culturally insensitive.

Image source: Temple Run