Angkor Wat Coloring Pages

A Stone Temple in Cambodia

Angkor Wat is a big stone temple in Cambodia, a country in Southeast Asia.
A king named Suryavarman II built it in the early 12th century.
It was built first as a temple to honor Hindu gods.
People say it took about 30 years to build!
Together with the ruins around it, Angkor Wat is picked as a World Heritage Site called "Angkor."

It Is Even on the National Flag

Angkor Wat is a very special place for the people of Cambodia.
Right in the middle of Cambodia's national flag, you can see the shape of Angkor Wat.
It is very rare for a country to put a building on its flag!

Corn-Shaped Towers Reflected in the Pond

The first coloring page shows Angkor Wat standing across a pond.
Towers shaped like corn stand in a line, and the tower in the middle is the tallest.
The temple and palm trees are reflected upside down on the water of the pond in front.
The view from this pond when the sun rises is very famous!

Steep Stairs Leading to the Central Tower

The second coloring page shows the Third Enclosure in the middle of the temple and its tall tower up close.
The tower is made of many layers of stone, with fine carvings on each layer.
Right in the middle, there are very steep stone stairs to climb up the tower.
Fine decorations are carved into each stone step on the tower's surface, too.
People built this tall tower by stacking stones one by one!

A Long Story Carved in Stone

On the walls of the hallways in Angkor Wat, very long bas-relief carvings go on and on.
Detailed carvings of stories about gods, royal parades, and battle scenes cover the walls.
As you walk along the walls, you can enjoy the story just like reading a picture scroll.
It must have taken many craftspeople a long time to carve all these pictures into stone!
Today, it is also cherished as a Buddhist temple.
You can even see monks visiting to pray.

Stone colors are gray and ochre

The stones of Angkor Wat are gray mixed with a little ochre and dark brown.
After you color with gray, add some ochre here and there to make the stones look old.
If you trace the tiny details of the carvings with dark gray, the patterns will stand out clearly!

The reflection on the water is a little lighter

For the temple reflected in the pond on the first page, try coloring it the same as the temple above, but a little lighter.
If you gently add light blue over it, it will really look like it is reflected in the water.
For the palm trees, color the trunks brown and the leaves green to give them a tropical feel!

Make the towers stand out with a blue sky

If you color the sky in bright light blue or blue, the stone towers will stand out nicely.
Leave the clouds white and just add light gray around the edges.
If you want an evening scene, coloring the sky in orange or pink is pretty too!
Line it up next to the Taj Mahal coloring page and compare the buildings reflected in the ponds!

Jungle green and stone colors

Angkor Wat is surrounded by palm trees and green jungles.
Layer dark green and yellow-green for the trees, and enjoy how they look together with the gray of the stones.
On the steep stairs on the second page, if you color the light sides and shadow sides of each step separately, the steep angle will look very clear.
If you make the top of each tower layer lighter and the bottom darker, the stacked stone shapes will pop right out!

The Front Faces West

The main entrance of Angkor Wat faces west.
Because of this, the sun rises behind the temple in the morning, creating a beautiful silhouette of its towers.

"Angkor" Means Capital City

It is said that "Angkor" comes from a word that means capital city.
"Wat" means temple.
So, Angkor Wat actually means "Temple of the Capital City!"
There are many other ruins nearby, like Angkor Thom.

A Popular Spot for Sunrise

Angkor Wat is also famous as a great place to watch the sunrise.
Many people gather by the pond while it is still dark to wait for the sun to rise behind the towers.
The color of the sky slowly changes, and the black silhouette of the towers reflects on the water. People say this view is very beautiful!
Near Angkor Wat, there is also a temple called Bayon, which features rows of giant carved faces.
Both are part of the Angkor ruins and are listed as World Heritage sites.