Its appearance apparently impressed Temür Khan's late 13th century envoy Zhou Daguan during his visit from 1296 to 1297, who said it was 'the Tower of Bronze...a truly astonishing spectacle, with more than ten chambers at its base.'

The Baphuon was later converted via Theravada Buddhist modifications that French scientists using AMS Carbon 14 have directly dated as a hundred years prior to the conventional 16th century estimation.

This confirms that the adding of the reclining Buddha was related to the Ayutthayan occupation of Angkor circa 1430-1440CE, during a major period of political and religious instability.

A large-scale project to dismantle the temple so that its core could be re-enforced before the whole is re-constructed again—a process known as anastylosis—was abandoned after civil war broke out in 1970.

King Norodom Sihamoni of Cambodia and Prime Minister François Fillon of France were among those who first toured the renovated temple during the inauguration ceremony on July 3, 2011.