Angkor Wat
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‘Angkor Wat’Angkor Wat is the largest temple in the world, and shows off the mastery of Khmer architecture. History, architecture and faith combine to display the peak of a great ancient civilisation. It is the biggest tourist attraction in Cambodia, and one of its most noteworthy structures is the Temple, the stone decorated with carving of extraordinarily beautiful detail, especially the sculptures of dancing females. Angkor Wat sits looking west on a sandstone plinth a meter above the ground, embellished with naga balustrades and imposing lotus-shaped towers. All the carvings represent a different aspect of Cambodia philosophy, spirituality, mythology, custom and lifestyle.
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Review by contributing editor ‘Angkor’Angkor is one of the most important archaeological sites in South-East Asia. Stretching over some 400 km2, including forested area, Angkor Archaeological Park contains the magnificent remains of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire, from the 9th to the 15th century. They include the famous Temple of Angkor Wat and, at Angkor Thom, the Bayon Temple with its countless sculptural decorations. UNESCO has set up a wide-ranging programme to safeguard this symbolic site and its surroundings.
Copyright © UNESCO/World Heritage Centre. All rights reserved. 5 / 5 Review by press. ‘The Angkor-Wat Bas-Reliefs’Angkor in Cambodia is home to one of the most unusual and impressive temples in the world; built in the early 1100s under the instruction of the Khmer king Suryavarman, it is surrounded by a huge, square moat and contains a maze of corridors, courtyards and chambers, over which many-levelled towers loom, in representation of Mount Meru, home of the Hindu gods. Aside from its singular architecture, it is also world-renowned for the bas-relief sculptures it contains. Once richly gilded, they depict legendary battles between Hindu gods and their enemies, plus a large number of minor Hindu guardian deities, or 'devatas', which seem to proceed anti-clockwise around the inner walls. This contributes to the theory that Angkor Wat was designed as a venue for the king's death rites, since it faces west rather than the more commonly chosen east.
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Review by editor ‘Ancient urban sprawl surrounded Angkor Wat’By David Adam The Guardian, Tuesday August 14 2007 The famous medieval temple at Angkor Wat in Cambodia was once surrounded by a giant urban sprawl of settlements, according to a new map of the area published by an international team of archaeologists. The experts spent years studying Nasa images of the Angkor region and checking possible sightings on the ground, and found enough ruins to conclude that the site was the largest settlement in the pre-industrial world. Carpeted with vegetation and obscured by low-lying cloud, the ruins spill over 400 square miles around the distinctive temple, and are linked by a complex irrigation system. Full Article from The Guardian 5 / 5 Review by press. ‘A translation of Maurice Glaize's definitive 1944 guide to the Angkor Monuments’By Maurice Glaize Angkor Wat is just one of a hundred or so monuments that remain scattered over an area of about 300 square kilometres in northern Cambodia - the religious remains of a series of cities, built by a succession of kings from around the 7th to the 13th centuries. All civic and domestic buildings were built in timber and have long since disappeared, so not much is known about the lives of the civilians - though some 1,200 inscriptions found throughout the region and the remains of a vast irrigation system indicate the scale and complexity of the civilisation. A translation of Maurice Glaize's definitive 1944 guide to the Angkor Monuments 5 / 5 Review by press. Have you been here? Why not add your own review. |
Photo by flickr user tylerdurden1
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