One of those places that should be visited once in a lifetime is definitly Angkor in Cambodia. This ancient city located just outside Siem Reap and easy reachable from Bangkok. It was only an hours flight. The Angkor Wat Temple might be the most wellknown and visited of all the temples as it is the largest religious building in the world. An absolute beautiful temple. Another amazing temple is Bayon – a Buddhist temple built some time at the end of the 13 th. Century. The whole Angkor area is huge with so many temples, that you have to make some choices when it comes to which ones you want to visit. I had three days of visiting temples, but had made my choices before I arrived.
Ankor was once the capital of the Khmer empire, which was on it's hight form 9th to 13th century. some years ago I saw a program on television where scientists / archeologists was telling about the size and population when the city was on its hight. They assumed that one million people could have living here. Quite impressive.
All the photos are from the Bayon Temple situated within the walls of Angkor Thom – a fortified city with other temples spread over an area of 10 square kilometers. Bayon is a buddhist temple with chambers, corridors and steps up to higher levels. The uniqueness of the temple are the huge, smiling faces carved in stone. When you look at the temple before entering, it reminds me of a forrest of stones.
As I walked around the temple I got the feeling of walking among towers of faces in a forest of stones. I think there are close to around 50 towers. One place I read that there are 49. Another place it said 54, so I don't know excactly. But with 4 faces on each (sometimes less) «tower» that tells us that there must be close to 200 faces. No matter where you walk, you have a face smiling at you.
Why the faces were carved and for what reason, is unknown as far as I have managed to find out. It could be the king. Its also belived that the towers represent each of the districts of the empire. This makes some scientists believe that the faces are looking after the inhabitants of the empire.
Apart from the faces, you can find bas-reliefs along the walls in some of the galleries with motifs depicting everyday life of the inhabitants and battles they have fought. In a way, these pictures tell the history of the city.
Both the smiling faces and the bas-reliefs are an impressive monument to Khemer's artistic abilities.
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