Are these the aerial view of the origami heart display at Angkor Wat temple?

After the largest origami heart was unveiled at Angkor Wat temple, which broke the world record last Tuesday, a photo of Angkor Wat with a colorful origami heart garden has been posted on social media. This post has been widely shared and commented on by social media users recently. However, Fact Crescendo Cambodia’s fact-finding found that the photo linked to the above text is not right.

This is about our investigation of this photo.

Social Media Claim

On April 11, 2023, a Facebook page called “Cam News Center” posted a collection of six photos showing the view of Angkor Wat (aerial view) with a heart of colorful paper gardens. The posting comes after Cambodia broke the world record for “most origami hearts in the world” at Angkor Wat temple complex in Siem Reap province.

The photo above has been shared many times by social media users, along with various expressions and reactions as well.

Below is a snippet image captured from the post on the Facebook page above that read in Khmer or translated in English as “Heart Garden Breaks the Record The world # Khmer can do it 🇰🇭”.

Facebook Post | Archived Link

Fact Check

Fact Crescendo Cambodia has started checking images through Google Reverse Image Search and other sources, which lead us to find the following facts.

The official Facebook page of Prime Minister Hun Sen posted on April 11, 2023 celebrates and congratulates Cambodia for officially breaking the Guinness World Record with more than 3.9 million origami hearts. This event was held at Angkor Wat temple, Siem Reap province.

The following is an aerial view that shows the shape and form of the “heart” and the word in Khmer that means “Khmer”.

Facebook Post | Archived Link

All the origami hearts collected from the capital and provinces to Angkor Wat temple have been arranged as “Heart” and the word “Khmer”. This was also published on the Khmer Times news website on April 12, 2023 to be presented at the Angkor Sankranti event to show the Khmer identity, love and promotion of Khmer culture and civilization .

Below is an aerial view showing millions of paper hearts arranged in a garden at the Angkor Wat temple complex.

Khmer Times Link | Archived Link

Breaking the world record of “Most origami hearts in the world” at Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temple recently has also been made and shown publicly on the Guinness World Records website.

Guinness World Records Link | Archived Link

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You may find the details of this fact-check in Khmer language here as well.

Conclusion

Fact Crescendo Cambodia found that the photo posted by the above Facebook page is false. All the origami hearts were collected from the capital and provinces to be displayed at the Angkor Wat temple complex and arranged as a garden with the form of “heart” and the word “Khmer”. So, the viral social media images seems like computer generated or digitally altered and not representing real images.