Following the death of King Suryavaran II (creator of Angkor Wat), Jayavarman VII became king and constructed the city of Angkor Thom.  Located within Angkor Thom is Bayon Temple, the city’s spiritual center.  This structure is full of smiling and peaceful buddha faces on the plethora of towers that jut out from the upper terrace – about 216 in total.  Scholars believe that the buddha faces are actually of Jayavarman VII as the resemblance between him and the faces throughout the temple is quite striking.   The scale of this temple is humongo as well.  We hit up Bayon right after Angkor Wat which allowed us to explore this temple with little crowds – we planned our visits the opposite of tour groups to account for this.  And it worked.