Angkor Wat is a beautiful ancient temple in Angor, Cambodia. It was built during the early years of the 12th century by Suryavaram II as his state temple and city, to honor the Hindu gods Shiva, Brahma, and Vishnu. A later king decided that Hinduism had failed him and he switched Angkor Wat to a Buddhist temple; Islamic statues, shrines, and artwork were replaced with Buddhist works. After the decline of the Khmer empire Angkor Wat remained a center for the worship of Buddhist monks even after it was abandoned in the 15th century. It was carefully maintained because it was in constant use. Because of this it is very well preserved. The five towers in Angkor Wat represent the five peaks of Mt Meru, an ancient mythic mountain that was said to be the Home of Gods and the Center of the Hindu Universe. The moat is supposed to symbolize the cosmic ocean that surrounds this mountain. Angkor Wat is surrounded by a moat 570 feet wide and four miles long. After the moat is the outer wall which is 2.2 miles long. Within the wall are three galleries, each one higher than the previous one. A long bridge crosses the moat from the west to lead into the first gallery. A long avenue leads from the first to the second gallery. The stairs to the platform of the second gallery are lined with lions. The last gallery contains the five main shrines. At the very center of the temple stands the set of five towers. The central tower reaches 210 feet above the ground. Angkor Wat was constructed over the course of 30 years and covers 81 hectares of land. Gorgeous carvings line the grey sandstone walls telling stories from Hindu Mythology like an enormous picture book. In the making of Angkor Wat no mortar was used, just gravity and a tight fit in the joints between sandstone bricks. Also, the Khmers did not know how to build an arch but they did make corbellings, two stacks of brick that moved inward little by little until they met in the middle. The lack of mortar and the corbellings meant that Angkor Wat was not very sturdy and if one brick came out of place an entire wall could fall down. Angkor Wat should be a wonder because of the intense human labor that was put into building it and because of the architectural feat that it is. Surrounded by a four mile moat and built without mortar but still standing, this structure truly is wonderous.