Many books have been written about Angkor and many more are doubtless still to come, but few are likely to equal in scholarship and charm the writings of M. George Cœdès. Originally published in French in Hanoi, in 1943, this work was revised and reprinted in Paris, in 1947. The English translation has been made by Emily Floyd Gardiner, who has lived in Saigon and has first-hand knowledge of Angkor. With the approval of the author some cuts have been made in the text and some passages have been condensed. The book in its present form omits the history of the changing archaeological theories about Angkor, which are not of special interest to the general reader.

It is not a tourist guide, but rather an introduction to the background of this ancient capital and the Khmer civilization and is designed to provide the ever-increasing numbers of English-speaking visitors with a brief summary of Angkor in its historical and religious setting. The author himself says, 'I have tried to let these great stone structures speak for themselves, because, in the minds of the Khmers, they were never just inert buildings without souls, but monuments with a vital quality that still attracts all who see them.'