Angkor Wat IELTS Reading Answers – A Guide to the Angkor Wat Passage

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by IELTS reading passages filled with historical depth and ancient architecture? The “Angkor Wat” passage is a classic example of such a challenge. Exploring the world’s largest religious monument not only transports us back to the glorious past of the Khmer Empire but also introduces a wealth of “tricky” terminology related to religion, sculpture, and spatial structure. Let’s join the ECE language center to break down the text layer by layer and master the strategies for tackling Short Answer Questions and Sentence Completion in IELTS Reading.

Reading Passage & Questions

Angkor Wat

Paragraph 1

Angkor Wat is simply unique, a stunning blend of spirituality and symmetry, an enduring example of man’s devotion to his gods. Relish the very first approach, as that spine-tickling moment when you emerge on the inner causeway will rarely be felt again. It is the largest and undoubtedly the most breathtaking of the monuments at Angkor, and is widely believed to be the largest religious structure in the world. It is also the best-preserved temple at Angkor, as it was never abandoned to the elements, and repeat visits are rewarded with previously unnoticed details. It was probably built as a funerary temple for Suryavarman II to honour Vishnu, the Hindu deity with whom the king identified.

Paragraph 2

There is much about Angkor Wat that is unique among the temples of Angkor. The most significant point is that the temple is oriented towards the west. This is symbolically the direction of death, which once led a large number of scholars to conclude that Angkor Wat must have existed primarily as a tomb. This idea was supported by the fact that the magnificent bas-reliefs of the temple were designed to be viewed in an anticlockwise direction, a practice that has precedents in ancient Hindu funerary rites. Vishnu, however, is also frequently associated with the west, and it is now commonly accepted that Angkor Wat most likely served both as a temple and a mausoleum for Suryavarman II.

Paragraph 3

Angkor Wat is famous for its beguiling apsara (heavenly nymphs). There are more than 3,000 carved into the walls of the temple, each of them unique, and there are more than 30 different hairstyles for budding stylists to check out. Many of these exquisite apsara were damaged during Indian efforts to clean the temples with chemicals during the 1980s, the ultimate bad acid trip, but they are now being restored by the teams of the German Apsara Conservation Project (GACP). The organization operates a small information booth in the northwest corner of Angkor Wat, where beautiful black-and-white postcards and images of Angkor are available.

Symbolism

Visitors to Angkor Wat are struck by its imposing grandeur and, at close quarters, its fascinating decorative flourishes and extensive bas-reliefs. However, a scholar at the time of its construction would have revelled in its multilayered levels of meaning in much the same way as a contemporary literary scholar might delight in James Joyce’s “Ulysses”.

David Chandler, drawing on the research of Eleanor Moron, points out in his book, “History of Cambodia”, that the spatial dimensions of Angkor Wat parallel the lengths of the four ages (Yuga) of classical Hindu thought. Thus, the visitor to Angkor Wat who walks the causeway to the main entrance and through the courtyards to the final main tower, which once contained a statue of Vishnu, is metaphorically travelling back to the creation of the universe.

Architectural Layout

Angkor Wat is surrounded by a moat, 190m wide, which forms a giant rectangle measuring 1.5km by 1.3km. From the west, a sandstone causeway crosses the moat; the holes in the paving stones held wooden pegs that were used to lift and position the stones during construction. The pegs were then sawn off and have since rotted away. The sandstone blocks from which Angkor Wat was built were quarried more than 50km away (from the district of Svay Leu at the eastern foot of Phnom Kulen) and floated down the Stung Siem Reap (Siem Reap River) on rafts. The logistics of such an operation are mind-blowing, consuming the labour of thousands – an unbelievable feat given the lack of cranes and trucks that we take for granted in contemporary construction projects.

The rectangular outer wall, which measures 1,025m by 800m, has a gate on each side, but the main entrance, a 235m-wide porch richly decorated with carvings and sculptures, is on the western side. In the gate tower, to the right as you approach, is a statue of Vishnu, 3.25m in height and hewn from a single block of sandstone. Vishnu’s eight arms hold a mace, a spear, a disk, a conch and other items. You may even see locks of hair lying about. These are an offering by both young women and men preparing to get married or by people who seek to give thanks for their good fortune.

The central temple complex consists of three storeys, each made of laterite, which enclose a square surrounded by intricately interlinked galleries. The Gallery of a Thousand Buddhas used to house hundreds of Buddha images before the war, but many of these were removed or stolen, leaving the broken remnants we see today.

The corners of the second and third storeys are marked by towers, each topped with pointed cupolas (domed structures). Rising 31m above the third level, and 55m above the ground, is the central tower, which gives the whole ensemble its sublime unity.

Once at the central tower, the pilgrimage is complete: soak up the breeze, take in the views and then find a quiet corner in which to contemplate the symmetry and symbolism of this Everest of temples.

Questions

Questions 1 – 4

Answer the questions below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

1. In which direction does Angkor Wat face?

2. What was originally in the main tower?

3. What happened to the wooden pegs used to construct the causeway?

4. What do you finally do when your journey through Angkor Wat is over?

Questions 5 – 13

Reading Translation

Paragraphs 1-2: Angkor Wat is simply unique, a stunning blend of spirituality and symmetry, an enduring example of man’s devotion to his gods… It is widely believed to be the largest religious structure in the world… There is much about Angkor Wat that makes it unique among the temples of Angkor. The most significant point is that the temple is oriented towards the west. Symbolically, this is the direction of death, which once led many scholars to conclude that Angkor Wat must have existed primarily as a tomb/mausoleum.

Paragraphs 3-4: Angkor Wat is famous for its beguiling apsara (heavenly nymphs). There are more than 3,000 carved into the walls of the temple… Many of these exquisite apsara were damaged during Indian efforts to clean the temples with chemicals during the 1980s… but they are now being restored by teams from the German Apsara Conservation Project (GACP). Visitors to Angkor Wat are struck by its imposing grandeur and, at close quarters, its fascinating decorative flourishes and extensive bas-reliefs.

Paragraphs 5-6: David Chandler… points out that the spatial dimensions of Angkor Wat parallel the lengths of the four ages (Yuga) of classical Hindu thought. Thus, the visitor to Angkor Wat who walks the causeway to the main entrance and through the courtyards to the final main tower, which once contained a statue of Vishnu, is metaphorically travelling back to the creation of the universe.

Paragraphs 7-10: Angkor Wat is surrounded by a moat, 190m wide, forming a giant rectangle… From the west, a sandstone causeway crosses the moat; the holes in the paving stones held wooden pegs used to lift and position the stones during construction. These pegs were later sawn off and rotted away. The sandstone blocks used to build Angkor Wat were quarried more than 50km away… The rectangular outer wall… has a main entrance featuring a 235m-wide porch… In the gate tower, to the right as you approach, is a 3.25m-tall statue of Vishnu, hewn from a single block of sandstone. The central temple complex consists of three storeys… The central tower rises 31m above the third level… giving the whole ensemble a sublime unity.

Paragraph 11: Once at the central tower, the pilgrimage is complete: soak up the breeze, take in the views and then find a quiet corner to contemplate the symmetry and symbolism of this “Everest of temples.”

Key Vocabulary Summary

Answer Key & Detailed Explanation

Question Type: Short Answer Questions (Questions 1 – 4)

1. west

• Question: In which direction does Angkor Wat face?

• Location: Paragraph 2: “The most significant point is that the temple is oriented towards the west.”

2. statue of Vishnu

• Question: What was originally in the main tower?

• Location: Paragraph 5: “…to the final main tower, which once contained a statue of Vishnu…”

3. sawn off (and) rotted away

• Question: What happened to the wooden pegs used to construct the causeway?

• Location: Paragraph 6: “The pegs were then sawn off and have since rotted away.”

4. contemplate

• Question: What do you finally do when your journey through Angkor Wat is over?

• Location: Paragraph 11: “…the pilgrimage is complete: soak up the breeze, take in the views and then find a quiet corner in which to contemplate the symmetry…”

Question Type: Sentence Completion (Questions 5 – 13)

5. moat & 6. sandstone causeway

• Question: Angkor Wat was built inside a large rectangular [5] and can be reached by walking across a [6].

• Location: Paragraph 6: “Angkor Wat is surrounded by a moat… which forms a giant rectangle”. Next: “From the west, a sandstone causeway crosses the moat”.

7. quarried

• Question: The blocks used to build it were first [7] and then transported on rafts.

• Location: Paragraph 6: “The sandstone blocks… were quarried more than 50km away… and floated down… on rafts.”

8. cranes and trucks

• Question: The ability to do this without [8] is hard to believe.

• Location: Paragraph 6: “an unbelievable feat given the lack of cranes and trucks”

9. unique

• Question: Angkor Wat is far more [9] than any other building to be seen here.

• Location: Paragraph 2: “There is much about Angkor Wat that is unique among the temples of Angkor.”

10. GACP / German Apsara Conservation Project

• Question: The [10] are responsible for restoring many of the carvings.

• Location: Paragraph 3: “…they are now being restored by the teams of the German Apsara Conservation Project (GACP).”

11. spatial universe

Explanation: The question asks for the symbol represented by the temple’s layout. The answer is “spatial universe.”

12. sandstone / a single block of sandstone

• Question: The statue of Vishnu was carved from [12].

• Location: Paragraph 7: “is a statue of Vishnu… hewn from a single block of sandstone.” (Hewn from = carved from).

13. pilgrimage

• Question: The central tower marks the end of your [13].

• Location: Paragraph 11: “Once at the central tower, the pilgrimage is complete”

Wrapping up our journey through Angkor Wat, we are not only awestruck by an unparalleled architectural wonder but have also gained a rich vocabulary in History and Archaeology. Identifying synonyms in the text (such as hewn from = carved from) is the key to efficiently handling Completion tasks. Apply these skills immediately by hiding the answer key and trying to locate the information in the original text yourself.