Wow. Wow. Wow.

  Siem Reap, Cambodia
Wednesday, March 29, 2006

The only thing we saved time for in Cambodia was the ancient city of Angkor. Built by the Khmer civilization between 802 and 1220 AD as the capital of the whole empire the place is absolutely mind blowing. Angkor actually means 'capital city' and it supported a million people when London was still a city of 50,000. The temples are simply awesome in scale and are architecturally inventive and audacious to an incredible level. Having toured the temples of Egypt a couple of times and gazed in awe at the monolithic size of the columns and statues I thought it would pale in comparison but it is just as enthralling, and walking around the 100 plus temples creates the same mystical allure and is completely captivating.
In a similar way to the pyramids of Giza the layout of the principal temples has been shown to mirrors the stars but in the case of Angkor the constellation of Draco at the time of spring equinox in 10,500 BC. While the date of this astronomical alignment is far earlier than any known construction at Angkor, it appears that its purpose was to architecturally mirror the heavens in order to assist in the harmonization of the earth and the stars. Both the layout of the Angkor temples and iconographic nature of much its sculpture, particularly the asuras ('demons') and devas ('deities') are also intended to indicate the celestial phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes and the slow transition from one astrological age to another.
We bought a three day pass and hired a tuk tuk to take us around the massive area. The first day was spent visiting the big three sites: Ta Prohm, The Bayon and Angkor Wat. Each of them is so iconic and individual that they are easily recognisable to most people and we were constantly spotting different well known photographic subjects. Ta Prohm is the one with all the huge tree roots strangling the temple walls and images of it have been used for album covers and films such as Tombraider.



Unlike other temples the jungle has been deliberately left to roam over the ruins in an attempt to invoke the feeling something like the archeologists who discovered it must have felt. It's bloody brilliant to ramble around the myriad of broken corridors and walls, meeting a dead end where a tree root has pierced the roof and turning another corner to discover a darkened room, the sun stabbing through the roof to reveal an ancient moss covered Buddha statue in the middle. You think you've seen it all and then some other gem turns up, fookin ace!!!!
The Bayon is another kettle of fish but just as amazing and perhaps more impressive. It is the centrepiece of Angkor Thom which was the last of the Khmer capitals and was built by King Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century. As you drive through one of the four enormous gates to the city and approach the temple you realise the sheer egotism of a God king. The 54 square towers that stand inside the walls each bear the face of the King or is it Buddha Avalotikeshvara on all 4 sides staring down out in a benevolent, enigmatic and slightly unnerving way to the cardinal points.



The outside walls have galleries with beautifully preserved bas-relief carvings depicting stories of battles and religious myths. Stunning Apsaras or heavenly nymphs dance across the columns in twos and threes. The symmetry of the square but complex layout of the architecture is aesthetically appealing, each level becoming more detailed and multi faceted as if to baffle and entrance you. As you walk through and up onto the second level the faces look down at you every way you turn, totally surrounding you. We wandered around in a daze for a good hour snapping like crazy, trying to capture digitally some feeling of the place. An impossible task.
We capped off the first day with the Daddy of them all, Angkor Wat. The Temple of Angkor Wat was dedicated to the Hindu God Vishnu by King Suryavarman II, who reigned between AD 1131 and 1150. The Temple was constructed over a period of 30 years, and illustrates some of the most beautiful examples of Khmer and Hindu art. Covering an area of about 81 hectares, the complex consists of five towers, which are presently shown on the Cambodian national flag. These towers are believed to represent the five peaks of Mount Meru, the Home of Gods and center of the Hindu Universe. Angkor Wat features the longest continuous bas-relief in the world, which runs along the outer gallery walls, narrating stories from Hindu Mythology.
Basically it's utterly VAST. If not only in scale, in presence and majesty it is for me comparable to the Great Pyramid. The moat alone, that surrounds the outer of the three enclosure walls circles the entire complex for 4 miles and is 600 feet in width. The entrance to the causeway is guarded by four imposing stone lions and as you walk slowly across you can see four of the five towers rising up in the distance. Once you pass through the first Gopura (entrance gate) you then continue along the stone path and about a ten minute walk later you come to the second Gopura. Only then do you enter into the temple proper. Again a beautiful symmetry has been employed, the covered walkways and walls are superbly preserved unlike any of the other temples and the fabulous bas reliefs are without parallel, reminding me of Egyptian carvings, especially in the lavish detail albeit with slightly clumsy use of proportion.
The height of the temple is masked by the walls, you walk up stairs to get to the inner courtyard and you must then climb up one of the eight seventy degree angle staircases to get to the base of the towers themselves. The main tower is as high as the cathedral of Notre Dame but even looking out from the base platform you can see for miles. It's crazy to think that only high priests and kings were ever allowed past the gates of these buildings and because they are so wonderfully preserved you can really feel the spirituality ingrained in every stone and imagine to some extent what it must have been like hundreds of years ago.



The other two days we spent going to some of the other temples on the site which all had their own special character and interest. Both of the days we went back to the big three sites and never got bored of exploring more, always finding many more details previously missed (especially Ta Prohm!!). We sat on the grass and took in the sheer splendour of Angkor Wat at leisure at a vantage point where you can see all five towers, and on the last day, after watching Angkor Wat appear out of the jungle at sun rise from a temple built on a tall hill, we went 25km further afield up the side of a mountain to do a proper Indiana Jones bit wading through the jungle to find carvings in the bed of a river. It's called Kbal Spean or river of a thousand lingas. Lingas are phallic symbols representing the Hindu deity Shiva and male divinity and potency. The water was low and we could see a tapestry of them carved all along the river bed also with images of gods and demons. The Khmers believed that as the water passed over the lingas it became holy, so by the time it reached Angkor it was powerful stuff.
By the way, Siem Reap is a pretty cool place too, nice restaurants and hotels and that but we really used it as a base to do the juicy stuff. All in all an it was an amazing three days which neither of us is likely to forget in a hurry.