Angkor Wat And The Colosseum And Their History

1221 Words5 Pages

Under the governing of UNESCO, Angkor Wat and Colosseum of Rome have been listed as heritage wonders of the world. Angkor Wat, located in Cambodia, is a temple built in the early years of the 12th century by King Suryavaraman II; whereas located in Rome, the Colosseum is an amphitheater in which the construction was started by Emperor Vespasian in 70 A.D. Even both sites were built in two different periods of time and located in two different continents of the world, they have captured worldwide attentions by their histories, their purposes behind the construction, and their architectural structures. Undoubtedly, the most captivated of Angkor Wat and the Colosseum to the world are their histories. As been mentioned, Angkor Wat was built by King Suryavaraman II in the early 12th century in order to dedicate the god Vishnu (Gray, M., 1982-2014). However, in around 1150, the king had died, and followed by a period of internal strife and external pressure of culmination of the Chams in 1177 (Unknown, 1992-2014), all monumental building activity at Angkor Wat had stopped (Gray, M., 1982-2014). By the mid-fifteenth century, the site had been abandoned due to economic reasons and the repeated invasions of Thai armies (Gray, M., 1982-2014) until the situations were restored by King Jayavarman VII (Unknown, 1992-2014). Talking about the Colosseum, there are quite similarities to Angkor Wat. The Colosseum construction was started by Emperor Vespasian in 70 A.D. (Ruhl, M., 2013).

Open Document