Second trip of temples brought us to two more incredible sites. The first site is Ankor Wat built in the early 12th century as a mausoleum for the king. Today, the site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It also is on the Cambodian flag and more than 50% of all visitors to Cambodia visit the site.
With a huge moat and walls to protect the temple, it clearly shows the power of the Khmer King.
The temple is the central point of the 1000 temples in the province that was the largest pre-industrial city in history with an estimated one million people.
All of our pictures struggle to capture people and the scope of the temple. But at least they don't show us sweating.
To reach the inner palace, they have constructed modern stairs which cover the worn, stone steps. They are steep.
David did not see why his mother was making him hold the hand rail. He's going to make a great test pilot. Check out the confidence.
Not shown here - the carvings on every surface of this massive site. Every wall, column, ceiling, landing, ...everything.
The second site was Ankor Thom which was a late 12th century temple. It is famous for the faces carved in stone that adorn the gates and towers.
The same face is found throughout the temple is believed to be either the face of the king, God, or a combination. There are over 200 huge faces throughout the site.
A fun implication is that you can stand "face-to-face" with these huge carvings as Julia demonstrated.
You can see that there are dozens of these faces behind David.
Look at how excited Brian was to participate in this photo. It was hot. Really hot. Brian wilted and we had to go home for a swim. Incredible.
No comments:
Post a Comment