Bayon Temple

Address: Bayon Temple, Angkor Archaeological Park, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Website: https://www.apsaraauthority.gov.kh

Hours: Daily 5:00am-6:00pm (Angkor Archaeological Park)

Admission: Angkor Archaeological Park ticket - 1‑day US$37, 3‑day US$62, 7‑day US$72 (valid for Bayon/Angkor Thom and other Angkor sites)

Bayon is the richly carved central temple of the walled city of Angkor Thom in northern Cambodia, constructed under King Jayavarman VII in the late 12th to early 13th century. It is renowned for its multitude of stone towers bearing serene carved faces and for its narrative bas-reliefs.

What visitors also find - The bas-reliefs include long horizontal panels showing scenes of battles, markets, processions and myth, providing one of the most extensive stone-carved narrative records at Angkor. The intimate scale of many corridors and the vertical arrangement of towers make exploration a mix of close-up relief study and panoramic viewing from higher platforms.

Commissioned by Jayavarman VII following his expansion of the Khmer state, Bayon served as a state temple and reflects Mahayana Buddhist iconography fused with Khmer royal imagery. Subsequent centuries saw repairs, partial alterations, and conservation work that revealed the structure observed today.

Situated within the walled precinct of Angkor Thom in Siem Reap province, Bayon occupies the geographic centre of the ancient capital and is a short drive from the Angkor Wat complex.

• Construction and faces: Built for King Jayavarman VII in the late 12th to early 13th century; the towers display multiple large carved faces, often counted as 216 in total across the complex.
• Visiting tip: Located at the geometric centre of Angkor Thom and best visited earlier in the day to avoid peak crowds from nearby Angkor Wat tours.

What to See#

• Central temple and face towers: A central state temple within the walled city of Angkor Thom, famous for numerous stone towers carved with large serene faces and extensive bas-relief galleries.
• Bas-relief galleries: Low terraces and galleries around the temple decorated with narrative bas-reliefs depicting battles, daily life, and religious scenes from the late 12th to early 13th century.

Bayon is a temple to get lost in - a compact, three-tiered maze of galleries and towers that rewards unhurried wandering. It faces east, and most visitors begin there.

The bas-relief galleries. From the eastern entrance, turn along the outer gallery, whose carvings are Bayon’s great treasure. Alongside the expected scenes of Jayavarman VII’s battles, these reliefs depict ordinary Angkorian life - markets, cooking, cockfights, childbirth - offering some of the only surviving glimpses of how people actually lived at the height of the kingdom. The best-preserved panels run along the eastern and southern walls; the northern and western galleries are more ruined. An inner set of galleries, broken into disconnected chambers by later alterations, holds obscure Hindu scenes worth an extra hour only for the truly curious.

Hidden chambers. Near the eastern stairway, tucked below and beside the central doorways, are easily missed chambers: one carved with the “Leper King” wrestling a giant serpent, another holding a later lingam, and a third with a deep, dark well where devotees still anoint themselves with water believed to be sacred.

The upper terrace. Stairways climb from all four directions to the third terrace, where the face towers cluster around the central sanctuary. This is Bayon’s showcase - serene faces gazing out from the surrounding towers, best photographed in the low light of sunrise or sunset. The tower just north of the central sanctuary offers a favourite shot: framed in a window beside a smiling face, or seated beneath one from outside. The central chamber holds a small seated Buddha; the great image found beneath it in 1933 now rests nearby.

Continue through Angkor Thom. Bayon sits at the exact centre of Angkor Thom, and it makes a natural starting point for a walking circuit of the walled city - north to the Baphuon and Phimeanakas, then out to the Terrace of the Leper King and the Terrace of the Elephants along the Grand Plaza.

The Bayon is in the centre of Angkor Thom within the Angkor Archaeological Park, about 5-7 km north of Siem Reap town. From Siem Reap you can reach the temple by tuk‑tuk, bicycle or private car (15-25 minutes); most visitors buy an Angkor Park pass at the main ticket centre before entering.

Once inside Angkor Thom the Bayon is a short walk from the central parking/approach; routes through the park are well signed and commonly covered as part of a tuk‑tuk circuit.

• Visit Bayon right around the park opening to beat the large mid-morning coach groups that arrive with the Angkor Wat crowds; early visits also give softer light on the carved faces.
• Climb the temple's galleries and terraces for close-up views of the smiling stone faces and to see the famous bas-reliefs from different angles; many visitors only view the exterior and miss the detailed reliefs on inner galleries.
• Approach Bayon as part of the Angkor Thom circuit rather than as a standalone stop - coming via the terrace and central avenues spreads visitors out and helps avoid the densest crowds at the main entrance routes.

Bayon was the state temple of Jayavarman VII, the great Buddhist king who rebuilt the Khmer capital as Angkor Thom in the late 12th century. Standing at the exact centre of the walled city, 1.5 km from each of its four gates, it was the spiritual heart of the kingdom - a model of Mount Meru, home of the gods. Its central sanctuary once held a sandstone image honouring the Buddha and the king together, in both their likenesses; discovered in a pit beneath the temple in 1933, it now stands nearby.

A break from tradition. Earlier Angkorian state temples were pyramids raised to Shiva, their five towers echoing Meru’s peaks. Bayon broke the mould: built by a Buddhist king at ground level, like Jayavarman VII’s other foundations at Ta Prohm and Preah Khan. Because Angkor Thom was so well fortified and no later king could marshal the resources to outdo it, Bayon remained the centrepiece of the capital and was reworked for centuries - the galleries of reliefs and the ascending terraces are largely the additions of the kings who followed. Seen from above, its plan forms a yantra, a sacred geometric diagram believed to hold mystical power.

Faces and everyday life. Bayon is famous above all for the serene stone faces that gaze out from its towers, and for its bas-reliefs. Where most Angkorian carving recounts gods and battles, Bayon’s galleries also record ordinary Angkorian life, giving us one of the few surviving windows onto the culture of the kingdom at its height.