#2177 Angkor Thom and the temple with the faces

photo by Narun

Note about this photo...I have tried and tried to post it further down in this story, but it keeps sticking up here at the very top. Since I like it, I'm just going to leave it up here.  We are in the Bayon Temple.

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Happy Friday! I missed posting on Wednesday. Honestly, I was sitting around watching TV and relaxing and I couldn't tear myself away to write here.

A clarification is needed from my last post. The tour of the Angkor Wat Archaeological Park lasted eight hours. The whole archaeological park covers around 400 square kilometers (154 square miles). Our tour was broken down to three main areas: the temple Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm. We spent two hours at Angkor Wat temple, and the other six hours were divided between the other two locations and lunch plus driving time. Sorry for the confusion!

Today I'm going to focus on Angkor Thom, which was the capital of the Khmer empire in the 12th century. King Jayavarman VII ruled and the famous Bayon Temple bears his likeness about 200 times. Apparently there are like 12 different expressions on the faces, but they all kind of looked the same to me. We did not see all 200 faces, but we saw many!

Here is our first look at it from the inside. Click on the photo to enlarge. Can you see the faces? I bet you can see at least half a dozen in this pic.

More photos:

I had to include this one not only because there are three good faces, but also because of the lady in the red dress. One thing I loved about some of the tourists is that they always posed in their photos. I look back and most of the pics that I am in, I am just standing there smiling a big goofy smile. Other tourists, mainly Asian, positioned themselves to add interest I guess, like the lady in the photo above.

When Jayavarman originally built Bayon there were more than 50 of these towers. Now there are less than 40,  I think I read. The city was abandoned and the jungle took over for awhile, plus the place was ransacked. It's has been and is being restored somewhat.

photo by MT

Our guide, Narun, knew all the best photo opportunities. I really like what he was trying to do in the photo below: MT going nose-to-nose with Jayavaraman.

photo by Narun

As I mentioned, the city has four gates. We went in through the South Gate. There is a bridge that crosses over a river, and on either side of the bridge are stone statues. On one side of the bridge are the gods and the other side is the demons, symbolizing the constant struggle between good and evil. Narun told us that over the years, the heads were removed from the statues and now they are being replaced with replicas. You can see the difference between the patina on the body and the heads, but I still think they look cool.

This is the demon side.

Another notable part of Angkor Thom is the Terrace of the Elephants and the Terrace of the Leper King. 

pano photo by Narun

Narun was the guide who first told us about panoramic photos and he was really good at them. He took this pano shot of the Terrace of the Elephants to the left and in the center. The Terrace of the Leper King is over to the right. It's all one structure and it's large. Can you see the elephants on either side of the stairs? How about now?

photo by Narun

This next photo is the wall of the Elephant Terrace. Can you see the elephants carved in bas relief there?

I don't really have a good photo of the Terrace of the Leper King. Honestly, by the time we were here we were incredibly hot and hungry and kind of tired. The sun there is super hot; I might have mentioned that before. Narun took us to a restaurant in the park - air conditioned and with Wi-Fi - and we were able to have a really good meal, drink a lot of water and cool off before we went to Ta Prohm. But I'll save those photos for next time. 

If you would like to read more about Angkor Thom and the structures in the city, this site is has some good information.

Have a great weekend!