Siem Reap: A total of 85,453 national and international tourists flocked to Angkor Wat Temple in Siem Reap provincial city to admire and take pictures of the equinox, a natural phenomenon when the sun rises over the central tower of Angkor Wat Temple, from Mar. 21 to 23, said the APSARA National Authority on Sunday.

According to Agence Kampuchea Presse, among them, 14,233 were foreign tourists who traveled from various countries to witness the sunrise over the central peak of this iconic Angkor Wat complex.

The equinox is the time when day and night are approximately equal in length, differing from other periods when the night is longer than the day or vice versa.

The event at Angkor Wat is intentional, a feature of the Khmer ancestors who designed the temple’s architecture to align with natural phenomena, creating a sunrise event at the temple’s top.

This specific sunrise occurs twice a year, in March during the Vernal Equinox and in September during the Autumn Equinox.