Long-Awaited Restoration of Angkor Wat's Causeway Ready

Phnom Penh, October 24, 2023 —

The long-awaited and labour-intensive restoration of Angkor Wat's causeway is now complete, and it is expected to bring more tourists not only to this most-visited temple but to Siem Reap province and Cambodia as a whole.

It is the completion of the second and final phase of the restoration of the temple's important causeway at the west entrance.

The 190-metre-long, 11.60-metre-wide, and 4-metre-high causeway was built of laterite and floored by sandstone between 1113 and 1150.

Mr. Long Kosal, Deputy Director General and Spokesperson of the APSARA National Authority, told the state-owned Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP) that in the 1960s, the French School of the Far East started the first phase of the causeway restoration on the south.

The causeway's second-phase restoration began in 1996 through collaboration between the APSARA National Authority and the Sofia University of Japan and took about 12 years, said the deputy director general.

The Apsara Authority, he continued, will officially inaugurate the restored causeway under the highest auspices of His Majesty Preah Bat Samdech Preah Boromneath Norodom Sihamoni, King of Cambodia, on Nov. 4 this year.

To ease the flow of visitors to Angkor Wat after the official inauguration, the authority will open the newly restored causeway for one-way entry, and the existing floating bridge will be used for exit.