Angkor Thum, royal city and Buddhist temple complex at Angkor, the region that served from 802 until 1295 as the capital of the Khmer Empire of Cambodia. Khmer king Jayavarman VII, who reigned in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, began building the vast monument at Angkor Thum (Khmer for "Angkor-the-Great" or "Great City") after he had regained control of the Angkor region from the Cham army of northern Cambodia, which had seized it around 1177.Angkor Thum was built over and around buildings and temples built by earlier Khmer kings, but its layout was modeled on Angkor Wat, a Hindu temple complex south of Angkor Thum. Angkor Wat was finished about thirty years earlier under Khmer king Suryavarman II, who was overthrown by the Cham army. Jayavarman was a recent convert to Mahayana Buddhism, and is thought to have abandoned Hinduism as a result of the defeat of the Hindu Suryavaram II by the Chams.
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