Page 219 - DK Eyewitness Travel Guides - The World's Must-See Places

CAMBODIA 217

KEY DATES
1113-50 1432 1860 1898 1992 1993
Construction of The Siamese (Thais) Angkor Wat is The French kole AngkorWat An internatbnal
Angkor ll'l.9t during sack Angkor Wat "rediscovered" by Fran<;aise d 'Extreme is declared a conservation project
QANGKOR WAT
the rule of the and the s~e is French naturalist Olien tstarts to UNESCO \1\t>rld starts the preser-
Khmer empire. abandoned. Henri Mouhot. clear the site. Her~age Site. vation of Angkor
Wat's temples. CAMBODIA
Phnom Penh•

SPRING EQUINOX GULF OF
THAILAf\/D
Khmer architects aligned Angkor Wat
with the Sun and the Moon. At the
spring equinox, it has a spectacular GALLERY OF lHE BAS-RELIEFS
solar alignment with the causeway as Angkor Wat is covered with 12,917 sq ft
the Sun rises over the exact center of ( 1 ,2 00 sq m) of intricately carved scenes that
the Central Sanctuary. depict Khmer myths, Angkorian warfare, and
stories from the great Hindu mythological epics,
the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Divided
South Gallery into eight sections, some of the most celebrated
On the Judgment of Yama panels include the Battle of Kuruksetra in the
panel, the sou Is of the
good are being carried on West Gallery, the Churning of the Ocean of
thrones on their way to Milk in the East Gallery, and the Judgment of
heaven, while the damned Jama in the South Gallery .. Angkor Wat also
are dragged into hell.
has 1 ,8 50 carved apsaras, or celestial dancers.
A Apsaras These sensuous goddesses, who are naked
Numerous celestial dancers except for ornate jewelry and elaborate head-
are carved onto the walls,
each slightly different in dresses, wear enigmatic smiles, known as the
gesture and detail. The "Khmer Smile," and are the glory of Angkor.
variety of hairstyles and
headresses is extraordinary. lHE FALL OF ANGKOR
The last great king of Angkor was Jayavarman
VII ( 1181-1220) He founded the city of Angkor
Thom, near Angkor Wat, where he built the
Bayon Temple, among many others. This
ambitious temple-building program probably
depleted the kingdom's coffers, as did wars
with neighboring Siam (modern-day Thailand)
and Champa (Vietnam) Little is known about
the kings that succeeded him, but in 1432,
the Siamese sacked Angkor and the last king,
Ponhea Yat, was forced to move south toward
Phnom Penh, the modern-day capital of
Cambodia. Although Angkor Wat remained a
holy place, the Khmer empire subsequently
went into decline and most of the tem pies were
show scenes from the
Battle of Kurukshetra, deserted, gradually becoming covered in jungle.
the main subject of
theMahabharata. REDISCOVERY OF ANGKOR
Although the ruins of Angkor Wat had been
chronic! ed by a number of foreigners, their
"rediscovery" was attributed to Henri M ouhot,
a Frenchman traveling under the auspices of
Britain's Royal Geographical Society in 1860.
A natura list and botanist, Mouhot spent three
weeks among the ruins, drawing and surveying
the tempi es. He wrote a detailed and lyrical
~ Causeway account of his work in his diaries, which were
published after his death from malaria in 1861.
His descriptions inspired numerous travelers,
including the Scottish photographer John
Thomson, who took the first black-and-white
photographs of Angkor in 1866.