Place of worship
Wat Athvea Temple
8RFR+9CV, Krong Siem Reap
Twelfth-century sandstone shrine facing west like Angkor Wat, its carvings left unfinished mid-commission.
This guide to Wat Athvea temple near Siem Reap follows an unsolved decision from the 1120s or 1130s: partway through carving devata guardians in the Angkor Wat style, King Suryavarman's masons put down their chisels and never came back. It traces how French restorers pieced the ruins back together in the 1960s and 70s, racing a war that arrived just after they finished. Look left in the entrance hall for the carved and merely outlined devata figures the guide points out.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.