The Elephant Terrace

The Terrance of the Elephants is a huge platform with walls covered by elephant carvings. It was used as the royal reception pavilion 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 busy when people, elephants, and their riders were passing by.



You can’t really see the elephant carvings by standing on the terrace, but come down to ground level and you'll see one elephant carving after another on the terrace wall. All 300 meters of it.


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


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?

Go to the next Angkor Thom temple: Terrace of the Leper King.

Return to Angkor Thom temples for a list of other sites that you can easily visit. The 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)

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