Heritage site

Victory Gate (Angkor Thom)

The Victory Gate is one of the five monumental entrances to Angkor Thom (អង្គរធំ), on the city’s east side.[1]

A stone gateway with a tall central tower carved with a large face and two smaller towers, a doorway at its base, set in a moss-covered laterite wall between tall trees
The Victory Gate of Angkor Thom, 2013

Setting

The east wall has two entrances.[2] An alternative description places the Victory Gate to the northeast.[3] The gate lies on the axis of the Royal Palace’s eastern entrance pavilion.[4][5] Its road leads toward Thommanon on the left and Chau Say Tevoda on the right, less than 500 meters outside the city.[4] The causeway is aligned with the Terrace of the Elephants and Terrace of the Leper King.[2]

Form and sculpture

The city’s five gates share a design of three towers in a row, rising more than 23 meters. Their passages measure 3.5 meters across and seven meters high.[5] The approach has 54 devas opposite 54 asuras, 108 figures altogether.[3][2] The lower part of each gate takes the form of a three-headed elephant, with Indra (ព្រះឥន្ទ្រ) between two apsaras.[2] At the Victory Gate, the central figure holds a vajra, or thunderbolt.[5]

Conservation

In 2024, APSARA National Authority (អាជ្ញាធរ"អប្សរា") archaeologists found a deva statue’s missing head buried near its feet at the gate.[3] The statue was the twenty-third deva in its row.[3] The balustrade foundations remained strong and had undergone repairs during the post-Angkor and French periods.[3]

APSARA reinstalled two statue heads in 2026.[1] The ceremony formed part of the Returning Spirits to Their Original Sites campaign.[1]

References 5
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lepetitjournal Cambodge, Deux statues retrouvent leur place à la porte de la Victoire à Angkor Thom (October 4, 2026)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Tourism of Cambodia, Angkor Thom - Great Angkor City (undated)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 The History Blog, Missing head of Deva statue found at Angkor Thom (May 21, 2024)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 theangkorguide.com (online edition of Maurice Glaize), Thommanon and Chau Say Tevoda (undated)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Angkor Database (English translation of Maurice Glaize), The Monuments of the Angkor Group (undated)


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This page was last edited on 14 November 2026, at 18:25.