One of the tourist attractions that can be seen in ISAN part or Northeastern is the ancient temple of Cambodian or Khmer.
The historian believes that marks one end of this temple is the ancient Khmer highway from Angkor Wat, located now in Cambodia. The enclosed area of 1020x580m is comparable with that of Angkor Wat. Phimai must have been an important city in the Khmer empire. Most buildings are from the late 11th to the late 12th century, built in the Baphuon, Bayon and Angkor Wat style. However, even though the Khmer at that time were Hindu, the temple was built as a Buddhist temple, as Buddhism in the Khorat area dated back to the 7th century. Inscriptions name the site Vimayapura (which means city of Vimaya), which developed into the Thai name Phimai.
The inventory of the ruins was done in 1901 by the French geographer Etienne Aymonier. Most of the restorations were done from 1964 to 1969 as a joint Thai-French project. The historical park, now managed by the Fine Arts Department, was officially opened by Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn on April 12, 1989.
Many believes that Khmer temples was the greatest engineering of ancient time of the world.
Why Khmer?
Khmer is the name of the Empire that was the largest empire of South East Asia based in what is now Cambodia. The empire, which seceded from the kingdom of Chenla, at times ruled over and/or visualized parts of modern-day Laos, Thailand,Vietnam, Myanmar, and Malaysia. During the formation of the empire, Khmer had close cultural, political and trade relations with Java, and later with Srivijaya empire that lay beyond Khmer's southern border. Its greatest legacy is Angkor, which was the capital during the empire's zenith. Angkor bears testimony to the Khmer empire's immense power and wealth, as well as the variety of belief systems that it patronised over time. The empire's official religions included Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism, until Theravada Buddhism prevailed after its introduction from Sri Lanka in the 13th century.
