The Elephant Terrace

TERRACE OF ELEPHANTS

Reign
Period
Religion
Highlights

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Jayavarman 7th
1181 - 1220
Buddhist
Elephant carvings on the terrace walls

The Elephant Terrace is a huge terrace with walls covered with elephant carvings. It was used as the royal reception pavilions during the reign of Jayavarman 7th.

When you stand on the terrace itself, overlooking the large field in front of you, you can’t help but imagine how it was in the old days. The place must’ve been a busy one when people, elephants, and their riders were passing by.

The terrace itself

You can’t really see the elephant carvings by standing on the terrace, but come down to ground level, and you’ll see that along the terrace walls one elephant carvings after the other. All 300 meters long of it.

Elephants everywhere you see

Elephant Terrace - The wall closeup

Elephant carvings on terrace walls

There are also statues of elephants on the stairways, usually with three elephants on each side. On these statues, you’ll see elephant’s trunks gathering lotus flowers on the ground.

Elephant gathering lotus

Although the terrace’s name is Terrace of the Elephants, there is quite a bit of alternating garuda and lion carvings on this terrace. They are also carved on the terrace’s lower sides, and all of them are carved with their arms raised, as if they’re holding up and supporting the terrace.

Where would you like to go next?

Return to Angkor Thom temples, for a list of other sites that you can easily visit. Angkor Thom complex is much larger than the Angkor Wat complex. However, unlike Angkor Wat, it houses several 'smaller' temples instead of just one.

Return from The Elephant Terrace to Holiday in Angkor Wat (homepage)