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Visitors
can travel to Siem Reap either on regular
domestic flights, overland or by speedboat
along the magnificent Tonle Sap to explore
new cultures, meeting local fisherman in
their floating villages and tasting ethnic
food fares.
Angkor Temples are spread throughout the
forest. Heading north from
Siem Reap, you first came to Angkor Wat,
then the walled city of Angkor Thom. Further
east are temples including Ta Prohm North
of Angkor
Thom is Preah Kahn and way beyond in the
north-east, Banteay Srey
and Phnom Kulen.
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ANGKOR
WAT
The
Angkor Wat Temple, the mysterious
Hindu Temple built by King Suryavarman
II at the height of the Khmer Empire
in the 12th century is the world's
largest temple complex. Consists of
many sandstone temples, chapels, causeways,
terraces and reservoirs, it is believed
that the gods assisted the architect
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whose identity remains a mystery until
today. The walls of the temple are covered
with thousands of carving depicting
scenes of confrontations between the
gods and the demons of classical Hindu
mythology. Yet on some are genial-dancing
ladies known as "Apsara" and
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on
others depicting royal processions with
the king and other royalties riding
on elephants. Whatever it is, the carvings
are clearly masterpieces in the true
sense. There is much about Angkor Wat
that is unique among the temples of
Angkor. The most |
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significant
point is its westward orientation. West
is symbolically the direction of death,
which once led many scholars to conclude
that Angkor Wat was primary a tomb.
This was supported by the fact that
the magnificent bas-reliefs of Angkor
Wat were designed to be viewed in an
anticlockwise direction, a practice
which has antecedents in Hindu funerary
rites. Vishnu, however, is often associated
with the west , and it is commonly accepted
nowadays that Angkor Wat was probably
both a temple and a mausoleum for Suryavarman
II. |
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ANGKOR
THOM
The
fortified city of Angkor Thom, some
10sq km in extent, was built by Angkor's
greatest King, Jayavarman VII (ruled
1181-1201). Centered on Baphuon, Angkor
Thom is enclosed by a square wall
8m high and 12km in length and encircled
by moat 100m wide,
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said to have been inhabited by fierce
crocodiles. The city has five monumental
gates, one each in the north, west and
south walls and two in the east wall.
In front of each gate stand giant statues
of 54 gods (to the left of the causeway)
and 54 demons (to the right of the causeway),
a motif taken from the story of the
Churning of the Ocean of Milk illustrated
in the famous bas-relief at Angkor Wat.
In the center of the walled enclosure
are the city's most important monuments,
including the Bayon, the Baphuon, the
Royal Enclosure, Phimeanakas and the
Terrace of Elephants. |
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BAYON
The
Bayon takes an easy second place
after Angkor Wat. The smile of the
four-faced Bayon has become a world-recognized
symbol of Cambodia.
The towering faces, reaching up to
four meters in height, adorn the Bayon
Temple at the exact center of Angkor
Thom in
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Siem
Reap. As many as 216 faces on the 54
remaining towers, each represented one
province of Khmer empire in the ancient
time. The Bayon is now known to have
been built by Jayavarman VII . There
is still much mystery associated with
the Bayon - its exact function and symbolism
- and this seems only appropriate for
a monument whose signature is an enigmatically
smiling face. |
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TERRACE
OF ELEPHANTS
The
350m-long Terrace of Elephants was
used as a giant reviewing stand for
public ceremonies as well as a base
for the king's grand audience hall.
The Terrace of Elephants has five
extending towards the Center Square,
three in the center and one at each
end. The
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middle
section of the retaining wall is decorated
with life-size garudas and lions; towards
either end are the two parts of the
famous parade of elephants. |
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BAPHUON
The
Baphuon, a pyramidal representation
of mythical Mt Meru, is 200m north -
west of the Bayon. It was constructed
by Udayadityavarman II (reigned 1049-65)
and marked the center of the city that
existed before |
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the
construction of Angkor Thom. The Baphuon
is in pretty poor shape and at the time
of writing, it was being restored by
a French team, with much of the temple
marked off-limits. It is approached
by a 200m elevated walkway made of sandstone.
The central structure is 43m high, but
unfortunately its submit has collapsed
(it may be restored). On the west side
of the temple, the remaining wall of
the second level was fashioned-apparently
in the 15th century into a reclining
Buddha 40m in length. |
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BANTEAY
SREY
Banteay
Srey was built in the late 10th century
and is a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva.
The temple is square with entrances
at the east and west. Of chief inter-east
are the three central towers, which
are decorated with male and female divinities
and |
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beautiful
filigree relief work. Banteay Srey is
21km north-east of the Bayon and 8km
west of Phnom Kulen. You can combine
a visit here with a trip to the sacred
mountain of Phnom Kulen. |
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TA
PROHM
The
temple of Ta Prohm rates with Angkor
Wat and the Bayon as one of the most
popular attractions of Angkor . Ta
Prohm is a unique other-world experience.
The temple is cloaked in dappled shadow,
its crumbling towers and walls locked
in the slow muscular embrace of vast
root systems. If
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Angkor
Wat , the Bayon and other temples are
testimony to the genius of the Angkor-period
Khmers, Ta Prohm reminds us equally
of the awesome fecundity and power of
the jungle. Built in approximately 1186,
Ta Prohm was a Buddhist temple dedicated
to the mother of jayavarman VII. Ta
Prohm is a temple of towers, close courtyards
and narrow corridors. Many of the corridors
are impassable, clogged with jumbled
piles of delicately carved stone blocks
dislodged by the roots of long-decayed
trees.
Bas-reliefs on bulging walls are carpeted
by lichen, moss and creeping plants,
and shrubs sprout from the roofs of
monumental porches. Trees, hundreds
of years old - some supported by flying
buttresses - tower overhead, their leaves
filtering the sunlight and casting a
greenish pall over the whole scene. |
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PREAH
KHAN
The
temple of Preah Khan (Sacred Sword)
is a good counterpoint to Ta Prohm,
though it gets far fewer visitors. Preah
Khan was built by Jayavarman VII (it
may have served as his temporary residence
while Angkor Thom was being built),
and like Ta Prohm it is a place of towered
enclosures and shoulder-hugging corridors.
The central sanctuary of the temple
was dedicated in 1191, Preah Khan's
role as a center for worship and learning.
Preah Khan cover a very large area,
but the temple itself is within a rectangular
enclosing wall of around 700m by 800m.
Four processional walkways |
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approach
the gates of the temple, and these are
bordered by gods carrying a serpent,
as in the approach to Angkor Thom. From
the central sanctuary, four long vaulted
galleries extend in the cardinal directions.
Many of the interior walls of Preah
Khan were once coated with plaster held
in place by holes in the stone. |
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SRAS
SRANG
Sras
Srang (Pool of Ablution) is a basin
of earlier construction, measuring
800m by 400m. A tiny island in the
middle once bore a wooden temple,
of which only the stone base remains.
There is a mass grave of hundreds
of victims of
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the
Khmer Rouge further north of Sras Srang
on the other side of the road . It is
marked by a wooden memorial. |
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PREAH
NEAK PEAN
The
late 12th century Buddhist temple
of Preah Neak Pean (Intertwined Naga),
which was built by Jayavarman VII,
consists of a square pool with four
smaller square pools arranged on each
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axis.
In the center of the large central
pool
is a circular "island" encircled
by the two Naga whose intertwined tails
give the temple its name. Water once
flowed from the central pool into the
four peripheral pools via ornamental
spouts, which can still be seen in the
pavilions at each axis of the pool.
The spout are in the form of an elephant's
head, a horse's head, a lion's head
and a human's head. The pool was used
for ritual purification rites and the
complex was originally in the center
of a huge 3km by 900m lake, now dried
up and overgrown. |
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