With over 150 significant monuments, Angkor is the crown jewel of Khmer civilization and an outstanding cultural heritage site best known by the iconic temple of Angkor Wat. It is also an ecological site with reservoirs (the famous barays), ponds, canals as well as forests and rice paddies. Home to around 130 000 local inhabitants scattered all over 112 villages, Angkor is a living site. Moreover, Angkor is a place of pilgrimage for Buddhists both from Cambodia and from abroad who come regularly to pray, organize sacred ceremonies and worship their deities in pagodas inside Angkor Wat, in front of Bayon as well as in Bakong and Lolei. Monks still live in pagodas and monastic life continues as in the past.
Due to its outstanding universal values, with its total surface of 401km2, the site has been included on UNESCO´s World Heritage List in 1992.
