c. 1094–1150
Khmer king who built Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument on earth.
Suryavarman II ruled the Khmer Empire from 1113 to about 1150, from Angkor in what is now Cambodia, and left behind the single greatest monument of the ancient builders: Angkor Wat.
That temple — the largest religious structure ever raised, dedicated to Vishnu, its towers and galleries carved with miles of relief — was his life’s work, and it has stood for nine centuries as the emblem of a civilization and, today, of a nation.
He was a conqueror as well as a builder, warring against Champa to the east and the Dai Viet beyond, sacking the Cham capital in 1145; and he restored the Khmer court’s relations with imperial China. Around Angkor Wat he raised other temples still standing — Banteay Samre, Thommanon, Beng Mealea.
He died about 1150. Angkor Wat remains his monument and the heart of Cambodia. Honored among the Great Ones of every civilization; kept here so the memory is never lost.
Kept with honor.
References
Biography drawn from the public historical record, verifiable against the sources above.
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