Ancient temples of Cambodia: description, history and interesting facts

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:48

The main attraction of Cambodia is its temples, of which there are a great many in the country. Today we will tell you about the most interesting and majestic ones that amaze the imagination with incredible bas-reliefs and original masonry.

The complex of temples in Cambodia occupies vast territories, and it should be noted that many of them are still under research.

Country specifics

Cambodia attracts tourists with its originality - it's not Thailand, a little embellished and convenient for tourists. Travelers are usually impressed by the wild lands, free smiling people and extraordinary temples of Cambodia. These are amazing ensembles that even Hollywood has not left without attention, which has repeatedly chosen them as scenery for its films.

Experienced tourists note features that are directly related to sightseeing in this country, which you need to know about for those who are just planning a trip:

All temples are magnificent in different waystime of day: some at dawn, others during the day, others at dusk.
Inspection of the ancient complexes takes a lot of time, so the event should be given at least three days to see the most interesting places. During this time, you can rent a room in one of the hotels located nearby the town of Siem Reap.
To explore the Angkor complex, it makes sense to consider renting a car, since many of the facilities are at a decent distance from each other.

Angkor: ancient temples of Cambodia

This is a region of the country that became the cradle for the largest empire in South Asia - the Khmer. Its greatness and prosperity dates back to the 9th-15th centuries. At that time, Angkor was one of the largest cities in the world, and its temples were already known far beyond the borders of the empire.

In 1431, Siamese troops destroyed the city, and its inhabitants were forced to leave it. Since that time, Angkor, along with more than a hundred temples and palaces, have remained, in fact, abandoned among the dense rainforests. And only at the end of the 19th century, the naturalist Ann Muo from France published several works that were devoted to Angkor.

Even Rudyard Kipling wrote his famous work about Mowgli - "The Jungle Book" - after visiting Angkor. Since 1992, the temple complex has been under the protection of UNESCO. This ancient Cambodian province has become home to priceless architectural monuments of the Khmer Empire.

Angkor - the ancient city

The temples of Angkor bear witness to the largest pre-industrial urban center on our planet.planet, which in its size exceeded the present New York Today it is a huge open-air museum with an area of 200 km². Here it seems that stone temples with decorated walls seem to grow out of the impenetrable jungle.

Scientists are still trying to unravel the mysteries of their construction, but Angkor carefully keeps its secrets. As in the heyday of the empire, Angkor today attracts travelers and explorers from all over the world like a magnet. And if in the old days merchants came here, then today's guests of this land are tourists.

Without exaggeration, we can say that the temples of Cambodia, and Angkor in particular, are the most impressive place in Southeast Asia. The kings of the Khmer Empire spared no expense to build a temple richer and more imposing than its predecessors.

Angkor Wat

The magnificent temple of Angkor Wat (Cambodia) is the undisputed gem of Angkor. Its spiers have become a symbol and hallmark of Cambodia. The temple consists of five towers of shrines, three galleries that increase in height towards the center and are surrounded by a moat filled with water, 190 meters wide. The structure's profile imitates an unopened lotus bud.

The first gallery is the outer wall above the moat. It has square columns on the outside. The ceiling between them from the outer facade is decorated with rosettes in the form of a lotus, and figures of dancers are depicted on the inside. The bas-reliefs on the walls of all three galleries depict scenes from various myths and many historical events.

A long alley connects the first gallery with the second one. You can climb to it by the stairs, which are decorated with sculptures of lions on the sides. In this gallery, the inner walls are decorated with images of apsaras - celestial maidens.

The third gallery consists of five towers, which crown the highest terrace. There are very steep stairs here, which symbolize the difficulty of climbing into the realm of the gods. Numerous snakes can be seen on the walls of the gallery. Their bodies end up in the mouths of lions.

Interesting facts

The stones of Angkor Wat, as smooth as polished marble, are laid without any adhesive mortar. The main building material for this structure was sandstone, which was delivered to the construction site from Mount Kulen, which is 40 km away.

Almost all surfaces, including columns and roof lintels, are carved from stone. Between 1986 and 1992, the Indian Archaeological Society carried out restoration work in Angkor. Wish Temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Bayon

This temple was built in honor of Jayavarman VII. It has three levels. The main part of the decor of the temple is paintings depicting the daily life of the Khmers. The Bayon Temple in Cambodia also has one blank wall, 4.5 meters high. On it you can see scenes of the battle on Tonle Sap Lake, in which Jayavarman VII won a victory over the Chams.

In 1925 Bayon was recognized as a Buddhist sanctuary. In 1933, in the temple, more precisely, in the well of its foundation, they found a statue of Buddha, in which clearlythere was an outward resemblance to Jayavarman VII. During the Brahmin restoration, which was carried out immediately after the death of the ruler, it was defiled. It was later restored and installed on the terrace.

Bapuon

The temples of Cambodia are completely different and they also amaze the guests of the country. After enjoying the extraordinary atmosphere of Bayon, go to the neighboring temple of Bapuon. For a long time, this territory was only a construction site, where restorers worked for several decades. They jokingly called their work putting together the most difficult puzzle in the world. Only two years ago, tourists got the opportunity to visit this ancient Hindu temple. It is dedicated to Shiva.

It should be noted that all the ancient temples of Cambodia are very majestic. Historians say that in ancient times Bapuon was one of the most beautiful in Angkor. But in the early fifties of the last century, it was almost on the verge of destruction. French archaeologists, together with a team of restorers, decided that there was only one way to save it - to completely disassemble, strengthen the foundation, and only then reassemble the building.

In the early 60s Bapuon was dismantled. During the dismantling, the blocks of the temple were transferred to the jungle, and each block had its own number. In the mid-70s, the Khmer Rouge came to power in the country, and restoration work was stopped. Later it turned out that the Khmer Rouge destroyed the documents on the dismantling of the temple, and there was no information left on how to collect 300 thousand stone blocks. ArchitectsI had to use photos and memories of local residents.

Ta-Prom

Probably will never cease to amaze tourists Cambodia. Jungle temples can be seen almost all over the country. But one of them - Ta Prohm - just fits Kipling's description perfectly. This is a huge temple-monastery, completely absorbed by the jungle.

Experts believe that it is the most poetic in Angkor, it has an amazing atmosphere created by huge trees that wrap around the walls. They have grown through the stones and hang over the towers. Over the centuries, the roots have become so fused with the walls that the trees cannot be removed without damaging the buildings.

Ta Prohm was built during the reign of Jayavarman as a Buddhist temple, occupying a vast area. However, in architecture it is not like other temples in Cambodia. It is a chain of one-story buildings, which are interconnected by through galleries and passages. Many of them are inaccessible today because they are littered with stones.

The uniqueness of this temple lies in the fact that many ancient inscriptions are carved on the stone walls. On a stone stele, which can be seen today in the Angkor National Museum, it is carved that at the time of its heyday 3140 villages belonged to the temple, 79,365 people worked here, 18 high priests, 2800 clerks served. More than 12,000 people lived permanently inside the temple.

In the place of the forest that today surrounds the temple, in ancient times there was a busy big city, and a large number ofjewelry. Now it is difficult to believe in this, since many buildings have turned into ruins. There are two types of trees here: the largest is a banyan tree with thick, light brown roots, and the second is a strangler fig tree. It features many thin, perfectly smooth gray roots.

The seeds of the tree fall into a gap in the masonry of the structure and the roots grow down, stretching towards the ground. We have already said that the temples of Cambodia are able to surprise even modern scientists with their mysteries. One of them is an image of a dinosaur carved on the wall of the Ta Prohm temple, to which guides like to lead excursion groups. However, until now no one can explain where the ancient Khmers could see the dinosaur.