First of all, Angkor is HUGE! There are so many temples, at least 100. The biggest one of course is Angkor Wat. it was built in 1135 by Suryavarman II. He was a usurper (he killed his uncle to become king) so he had to prove that he was legit. hence, he built Angkor Wat. It was dedicated to Vishnu, the top Hindu god. The reasoning was that Sury II was more legit if he had the the most important god representing him. It's made of laterite and sandstone. Laterite is a type of stone that's really malleable and easy to cut when it first comes out of the ground, but hardens as it ages and is exposed to oxygen.
Angkor is an example of classical Khmer architecture and is composed of 5 "pinecone towers" (I don't remember the Khmer name for them). The middle, and largest, represents Mt. Meru, which is like Mt. Olympus for Hindus. Mt. Meru is supposedly located north of the Himalayas. It has 7 rings circling it, 4 other mountains around it. It also sits on top of 3 pedestals. All of this is represented in Angkor Wat.
There are some cool things about its architecture and construction too. It faces west, unlike regular Hindu temples which face east. This is because Sury II wanted Angkor Wat as a temple as well as a mausoleum. In the Hindu religion, the land of the dead is to the west, so Sury II wanted easy access. Because Sury II needed it to buried in, it was finished in only 35 years! At the time in Europe, they were building cathedrals that were half the size of Angkor Wat and took more than 200 years to complete!
Angkor Wat floats! The area that it was built in is all swamp, so to solve the problem of the temple falling to peices and sinking, the architects decided to build a ginormous moat around it to stabilize the ground under Angkor Wat. So when it rains the water goes into the ground, but when the dry season comes, the ground doesn't dry up and destabilize Angkor. The architects wetre pretty much geniuses.
Anyways, here are some photos!
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