Angkor, meaning city, was the capital city of the Khmer Empire. The Angkorian period began in AD 802 with the Khmer Hindu monarch Jayavarman II and lasted until the 1431 sacking of Angkor by Ayutthaya. During these seven centuries.more the 1,000 temples were built reflecting the Hindu influence in the early structures and in later centuries the Buddhist influence. In 2007, an international team of researchers using satellite photography and other modern techniques concluded that Angkor had been the largest pre-industrial city in the world, with an elaborate infrastructure system connecting an urban sprawl of at least 1,000 square kilometers (390 sq mi) to the well-known temples at its core. Angkor is considered to be a 'hydraulic city' because it had a complicated water management network, which was used for systematically stabilizing, storing, and dispersing water throughout the area. This network is believed to have been used for irrigation in order to offset the unpredictable monsoon season and also to support the increasing population. The closest rival to Angkor, the Mayan city of Tikal in Guatemala, was between 100 and 150 square kilometers (39 and 58 sq km) in total size. Although the size of Angkor's population remains a topic of research and debate, newly identified agricultural systems in the Angkor area may have supported up to one million people (Wikipedia). Angkor is now a World Heritage Site and during our visit in 2012, many of its temples, including Angkor Wat, Bayon, Bakong and others were being restored, a tedious and costly endeavor, with financial aide from countries such as France, Italy, Germany, Japan, India and others. This picture was taken on 16 August 2012, Sig...