Angkor Wat was constructed in the jungle in the early 12th century, then - two centuries later - was mysteriously abandoned by the Khmer civilization. The jungle soon overwhelmed Angkor Wat, hiding it for several centuries with thick tropical foliage when, in 1861, a French naturalist accidentally came across the jungle veiled ruins.
Angkor Wat is one of many structures in a huge human-built complex, as geographically large as Paris. It is collectively called Angkor.
