The Kingdom of Cambodia is located in the southeast of Asia and borders Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. In the 12th century King Jayavarman 2 and his followers conquered large parts of contemporary Thailand, Vietnam and Laos in the following years, to become one of the greatest empires in the history of Southeast Asia; the Khmer empire. Because the king spent a long time in Java, he got great ideas for the architecture of his new empire. Inspired by the Borobudur temple in Java, all kinds of temples and cities were built in Hindu style. The most iconic of these structures is Angkor Wat. This temple near the present-day city of Siem Reap was built long after the first king died and after forty years of building was finished in the year 1150. Around this time the empire was at war with the other people in this region, the Cham. After many battles it was King Jayavarman 7 who defeated the Cham and became the most celebrated King of the empire ever. He built many other temples in the area, including Angkor Thom and Bayon. He ensured that the empire flourished as never before and Angkor was the largest pre-industrial populated city in the world, where more than 1 million people lived. The remnants are still visible on this day near the present city of Siem Reap and it's province. More then 80 majestic temples and temple-ruins can be visited. This is visible in Siem Reap as each year 2 million tourists visit this Unesco heritage site and wonder in the splendor of the old Khmer empire.