Exploring Ancient Angkor Wat
Exploring the ancient kingdom temples
At its height in the 13th century, Angkor was home to almost 1 million people and on a grid scale the size of Manhattan. New evidence at Srah Damrei, suggests it could now be even bigger. By comparison, London was home to just 80,000 people during this period and Teotihuacan’s largest Aztec structures in Mexico were only completed in 300 A.D, while Angkor was founded before the Inca civilisation at Machu Picchu in 1450 A.D.
The earliest written accounts of Angkor came from the Far East, in 1296 Chinese diplomat Zhou Daguan spent a year in Angkor as a guest of the Khmer king, Indravarman III and his subsequent report, ‘A Record of Cambodia: The Land and its People’. These depictions are now one of the most important sources of information about historical Angkor and the Khmer Empire.
Zhou was granted entry to the Royal Palace as part of his diplomatic status mission, but not to the inner palace. He described the palaces and temples, as well as the buildings in and around the city. He witnessed parades and ceremonies, as well as people’s everyday life, and he also traveled outside of the capital to the countryside. He spent much of his time in Cambodia in a house near the north gate of Angkor Thom.
According to Zhou, the Palace was located to the north of the golden bridge and golden tower, and it faced east. The palace’s main hall was coated with lead tiles, while the rest was covered with clay tiles.
Angkor Wat
The architectural construction of Angkor Wat began in 1122, during the reign of Suryavarman II. The temple mount contains more sandstone than Egypt’s largest Giza pyramid. There are 1,200 square meters of carved bas reliefs at Angkor Wat, representing eight different Hindu stories.
The building of temples by Khmer kings was a means of legitimizing their claim to political office and also to lay claim to the protection and powers of the gods. Hindu temples are not a place for religious congregation; instead; they are homes of the god. In order for a king to lay claim to his political office he had prove that the gods did not support his predecessors or his enemies.
The king’s vision to build the grandest religious temple for the gods, one that proved to be more lavish than any previous temples. In doing so, the king could make visible his ability to harness the natural energy and resources to construct the temple, and assert that his temple was the only place that a god would consider residing in on earth.
Henri Mouhot
During the Victorian era, while exploring the tributaries of the Mekong River in Siam, Henri Mouhot came upon Angkor Wat. Mouhot was born in 1826 in Montbéliard, France. He was a gifted linguist and a skilled artist. Attending a lecture on an English expedition to Siam, he was inspired with the idea of a Far East botanical expedition.
Mouhot used many modes of travel, including small fishing boats plying the coastline, elephants, surefooted horses for mountainous areas, oxen carts and, often, he trudged through the jungle on foot. He slept in a hut when he could, but his accommodation was usually a hammock strung between two trees and a mosquito net. He even spent one night in a tree hut when he was exploring a mountain range and lost his bearings while chasing a wild boar.
Mouhot’s published drawings of Angkor Wat captured the imagination of the west. They include the layout of Angkor Wat, architectural features of the terrace, the causeway, columns, porticos, and galleries and details of the bas-reliefs and artefacts. The tomb of this exceptional man, explorer, naturalist, is outside the ancient royal Lao capital of Luang Prabang.
L’Extrême-Orient
During Napoleon III, Cambodia joined Vietnam (Cochin China, Anan and Tonkin) in 1867 to form French Indochina, with King Norodom Sihanouk declaring Cambodian independence later in 1953. During the last 30 years, French archaeologists working in collaboration with Cambodia’s APSARA Authority have been exploring the temples that remain an indelible part of the landscape. Established in 1900, the École Française d’Extrême-Orient’s main field of research has been conservation work at the archeological site of Angkor.
Preah Khan
The latest WMF restoration work has completed the renovation of Preah Khan Temple’s eastern terrace. The temple complex includes entryways, towers, ceremonial spaces, courtyards, shrines, and a variety of connecting corridors. Additional special features of Preah Khan include its two-story pavilion and its Hall of Dancers.
Ta Prohm
The conservation of Ta Prohm is a partnership project Archaeological Survey of India and the Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap (APSARA). Ta Prohm has often been romanticised for its ruin courtyards and giant strangler fig and silk trees.
Bayon
Bayon is a richly decorated Khmer temple related to Buddhism at Angkor in Cambodia. Built in the late 12th or early 13th century as the state temple of the King Jayavarman VII with 54 carved faces. Bayon’s most distinctive feature is the multitude of serene and smiling stone faces of The Buddha.
In 2023, Cambodia marks the 31st anniversary of the inscription of the Angkor Archaeological Park on the list of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites.
