AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Srah Srang (ស្រះស្រង់, "Royal Bath") is a great rectangular reservoir tucked inside the Angkor Archaeological Park, lying just east of the temple of Banteay Kdei and south of the old East Baray. Though it carries a temple tag on the map, what visitors actually find here is a long sheet of mirror-still water framed by an elegant laterite landing stage — one of the quietest and most photogenic corners of the whole Angkor circuit.↗↗↗
Measuring about 700 by 350 metres and holding water year-round, the basin was first dug in the mid-10th century and then reshaped around the year 1200 under the Buddhist king Jayavarman VII, who added the cruciform pier on its western shore. Today that terrace, opposite the eastern gate of Banteay Kdei, is prized as a sunrise viewpoint where the sky glows over open water with none of the crowds that pack Angkor Wat at dawn.↗↗↗
A royal bath, not quite a temple
The reservoir's origins are practical rather than sacred. Inscriptions credit Kavindrarimathana, a Buddhist minister and architect serving King Rajendravarman II, with digging the basin in the 10th century as a watering place for animals; the romantic name "Royal Bath" came later. Around 1200, Jayavarman VII remodelled it into its present form and built the laterite landing stage on the west side, probably because the great East Baray had silted up and stopped functioning.
