Temples! Temples! Temples!

So, it's time to finally move on to why we're all here in Siem Reap. Temples!The Cambodian kings of old strove to outdo each other by building bigger and better temples and religious complexes. So, here we have Angkor: the crumbling remnants of the ancient Khmer empire. Much reconstruction has been done on the site by necessity; it was 'lost' to the jungle for centuries before being 'discovered' (in the best traditions of Western hubris) by the French in the 1860s. 'Discovered' even though there were monks living here at the time.

Our first stop this morning was to get our three day pass (USD40) and then on to Angkor Wat itself. My first impression of the temple complex of course was that it was simply huge. And as I sit here struggling to even start explaining the history, significant, architecture, and layout of Angkor Wat - possibly the largest religious building in the world - I realise I can't. At least not on a blog. Perhaps a book? The History of Angkor Wat and Ankor Thom in fifteen installments? Ok, twenty.

Photo: Dave in front of Angkor Wat's moat

Angkor Wat is, among other things, facing west. This has caused archaeologists some grief as west is the direction of death and most other temples face east. It's also surrounded by a man-made moat and is extensive. It was built by Suryavarman II (1112 - 52). Trying to keep up with the kings of Khmer is almost impossible, particularly when all of them have the word 'varman' in their name. It means 'armour' or 'protector'.

Photos: Angkor Wat complex

After Angkor Wat, we moved to the nearby fortified city of Angkor Thom built by Jayavarman VII. In particular, we stopped at the Bayon Temple with the 'Happy Buddhas'. At least that's what our guide told us about the 216 smiling faces on the towers throughout the temple. My guidebook tells it differently but I think I prefer to a smiling symbol of serenity and enlightenment to the supercilious benevolence of a king.

Photos: Faces of the Bayon Temple

Of course, Dave needed another photo so with the help of Jola, here's LRD at Angkor Thom.

 

Photo: LRD with Jola at Angkor Thom

 Lunch was another charity restaurant who managed to give us a nice feed despite the fact Siem Reap was having one of its power outages.

Finally, we spent the afternoon at Preh Khan or the Temple of the Sacred Sword. It seems embarrassing to describe this as "yet another temple" but we'd already seen Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom so...

One thing I will say is that the Khmer empire was originally Hindu and then converted to Buddhism. This means the older temples are Hindu and the later ones Buddhist. What I didn't know was that the empire did briefly convert back to Hinduism and temples like this one are a blend of both religions.

After all those temples and it being truly "bloody hot", we went back to the hotel and slipped into the pool to cool off. Then we had dinner in 'Pub Street' in all its gaudy, loud backpacker glory and had an early night. Sunrise over Angkor Wat tomorrow morning. Yay!