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The outer wall, {{convert|1024|m|ft|abbr=on}} by {{convert|802|m|ft|abbr=on}} and {{convert|4.5|m|ft|0|abbr=on}} high, is surrounded by a {{convert|30|m|ft|abbr=on}} apron of open ground and a moat {{convert|190|m|ft|abbr=on}} wide and over 5 kilometres (3 mi) in perimeter.<ref name=Jarus2018>{{cite news |last1=Jarus |first1=Owen |title=Angkor Wat: History of Ancient Temple |url=https://www.livescience.com/23841-angkor-wat.html |access-date=28 July 2018 |work=Live Science |publisher=Purch |date=5 April 2018 |archive-date=10 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230610114716/https://www.livescience.com/23841-angkor-wat.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The moat extends 1.5 kilometres from east to west and 1.3 kilometres from north to south.<ref name="Angkor Wat: An Introduction">{{cite journal |last1=Fletcher |first=Roland |first2=Damian |last2=Evans |first3=Christophe |last3=Pottier |first4=Chhay |last4=Rachna |title=Angkor Wat: An introduction |journal=Antiquity |date=December 2015 |volume=89 |issue=348 |page=1395 |doi=10.15184/aqy.2015.178 |s2cid=162553313 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286412358 |access-date=27 March 2020 |via=ResearchGate}}</ref> Access to the temple is by an earth bank to the east and a sandstone causeway to the west; the latter, the main entrance, is a later addition, possibly replacing a wooden bridge.<ref name="multiref4">Freeman and Jacques p. 49.</ref> There are [[Architecture of Cambodia#Gopura|gopuras]] at each of the [[cardinal point]]s; the western is by far the largest and has three ruined towers. Glaize notes that this gopura both hides and echoes the form of the temple proper.<ref>Glaize p. 61.</ref>
Under the southern tower is a statue known as ''Ta Reach'', originally an eight-armed statue of Vishnu that may have occupied the temple's central shrine.<ref name="multiref4" /> Galleries run between the towers and as far as two further entrances on either side of the gopura often referred to as "elephant gates", as they are large enough to admit those animals. These galleries have square pillars on the outer (west) side and a closed wall on the inner (east) side. The ceiling between the pillars is decorated with [[Nelumbo nucifera|lotus]] rosettes; the west face of the wall with dancing figures; and the east face of the wall with balustered windows, dancing male figures on prancing animals, and [[Architecture of Cambodia#Apsara and devata|devatas]], including (south of the entrance) the only one in the temple to be showing her teeth.
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