It is an amazing concentration of architectural wonders. The hundreds of temples that are surviving today aren't really any representation at all of what was the ancient Khmer empire. The houses, public buildings and palaces of Angkor were built of wood and are long decayed, but the temples for the gods - built of bricks and stones - are absolutely amazing!!!
Angkor Wat is the temple that people are the most familiar with, but I actually didn't even go there today (that's tomorrow's agenda). Today I went to Angkor Thom; the Bayon, the Baphuon, the Terrace of the Elephants and Ta Prohm and to Banteay Srei ... as well as driving by about a dozen other temples.
Each of these locations is enormous and you could easily spend two hours or more in each location - so even seeing what we did today was a very full day!
Our first stop was Angkor Thom, a walled "city" that is an entirely separate complex from Angkor Wat, with a large number of amazing temples contained within it. The gates into Angkor Thom are flanked by statues - 54 representations of demons on one side and 54 gods on the other side - and this entrance way goes over a massive moat that was hand-dug to surround the entire Angkor Thom complex.
Bayon is the main temple within Angkor Thom. The Bayon has 54 gothic towers and the temple is decorated with 216 "smiling faces".
Having a little fun with one of the smiling faces...
The Baphuon was our next stop. Restoration efforts of this temple were completed disrupted during the Cambodian civil war, and all records were destroyed during the Khmer Rouge years, so French reconstruction experts were said to have on their hands the worlds largest jigsaw puzzle.
After leaving The Baphuon we walked along the Terrace of the Elephants for awhile. Terrace of the Elephants is 350 m long and decorated with parading elephants its entire length. It was used as a giant viewing stand for public ceremonies and it served as a base for the king's grand audience hall.
Ta Prohm temple was built in 1186 and it is a temple of towers, enclosed courtyards and narrow corridors. Ancient trees tower overhead and the trees and their roots have grown in and around all the ancient ruins.
(For those of you who don't know, Ta Prohm is where they filmed "Tomb Raider".)
Our last stop for today was Banteay Srei - considered by some to be the jewel in the crown of Angkorian art. Banteay Srei is made from a sandstone of pink-ish hue and has some of the finest stone carvings in Angkor, if not in the world.
On our way back to Siem Reap we stopped at the Cambodia Landmine Museum. This museum has been set up by a person who was once a Khmer Rouge soldier and is now dedicating his life to eliminating the landmines that are still here in Cambodia. Hundreds of thousands of bombs dropped in Cambodia in the 1960's and 70's did not explode and to this day they still remain in the fields and towns of Cambodia.
I must head to bed now - we have an early start tomorrow (4:30 am) as we're getting up to hopefully see the sunrise over Angkor Wat. Keep your fingers crossed for me that it doesn't rain.
Your pictures are astounding, cher. We are hoping for clear skies in the morning, as I cannot wait to see what you do with that kind of opportunity. I could fill a gallery with all of my "favourite pictures" from this journey.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately clear skies weren't on the offering this morning but even though I didn't get a sunrise I still had an awesome (literally) visit to Angkor Wat!
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