My Sanctuary: Angkor Essentials - The Journey Continues....

Day Two - Siem Reap, Cambodia

We headed to our next destination - Baphuon (see photograph below), which was situated 200m northwest of Bayon. It was completed in 1060 and was the centre of the capital of Udayadityavarman II. The path that you see leading to the temple is actually raised above ground (about 1m) on a platform supported by a triple row of round and short columns.

According to my faithful guidebook, it says that this exceptionally large temple mountain eventually collapsed because the engineering skills of the Khmers did not match their architectural aspirations. If you look at the photograph below, you can see cranes and scaffolding on the temple as at present, a grandiose restoration project us underway that will take some years to finish.

We walked all the way to the temple but unfortunately, they were closed on that Sunday that we were there. Bummer!! So we only had a glimpse of the exterior of the temple. Just got to go back then ya *grins*

We then walked on to the Terrace of the Elephants but came across the Royal Square (see below), planned by Jayavarman VII as a theatrical venue of parades and ceremonies.

Can you make out this pile of stones below? Initially my first thought was that it reminded me one of them totem birds but I think it's meant to be the many naga statues that we see at different temples, as a form of protection.

Cobbled pavements as we walked towards Phimeanakas (see below) and I have absolutely no idea why I took that photograph. And I still have no idea why I am even posting it here. Anyways, we did a detour, instead of heading straight to the Terrace of the Elephants, we went to another sanctuary first.

The Phimeanakas sanctuary consists of a rectangular temple set on a three-tier pyramid with four axial stairways which are extremely steep. Thankfully, wooden steps have been built to help visitors up the temple and you gotta wait for those going down to finish before climbing up. Yes, it's one way stairways and got me huffing and puffing by the time I got up.

Mag was a good sport and climbed up the steep section to get to the other side. I decided to go over some big blocks instead to get to the other side.

Thanks to Mr Chenla who was patiently waiting at the base for us and helped us take these shots. If you're wondering what the name Phimeanakas means, well, it is derived from the deformation of the Sanskrit terms vimana and akasha which means 'palace of the gods' and 'sky' respectively. According to the Chinese emissary Zhou Daguan, this temple was made of gold ... so probably its dome must have been gilded. But no signs of that now ...

Below shows one of the many guardian lions that can be found at the stairways. And not in the photograph but there were also some remains of elephants on the corners of the terraces.

Another view of one of the axial stairway that faces the Royal Palace.
A short walk was the Royal Palace which started construction in the 10th Century. Mr Chenla was determined to show us Srah Srei or the 'women's bath' which measured 30m by 50m(see below) meant for the women folks (King's many many concubines) and next to the Bath is a tiny pool by comparison that was known as the Srah Pros or 'men's bath' *grins* Life was good then huh!

And as you can see below, the baths are bordered by terrace walls with relief carvings. I can just imagine the women enjoying a soak especially with the heat. I myself felt like jumping in but the colour of the water in the pond made me think twice *grins*

We then moved on to the gopura (see below) that led us into the Preah Palilay area, which meant we were moving out of the Royal Grounds.

It was a pleasant walk with all the greenery around. we came across this awesome three with roots / trunks that branched out forming an arch. I couldn't tell if it's two trees that formed one but one tree with roots that formed the arch. But just thought it was so cool!

Amidst the trees, we could see the Preah Palilay, which was supposedly built between the late 13th and early 14th centuries as the images of Buddha were not mutilated, as occurred in the early 13th century during the revival of Brahmanism.

Mr Chenla took us through the beautifully sculpted lintels and pediments (see photograph below) that narrated episodes from the life of Buddha.

We then moved on to the Terrance of the Leper King. Below is a photograph of a hidden second wall that was accidentally discovered during the excavations made by EFEO. The Terrace of the Leper King was probably meant for funerary purpose with the platform used for the cremation of the royal family.

Up the terrace by the stairs on the northwest corner would be the statue of the so-called Leper King. The figure has been identified with Yama, the god of Death. However, the original statue is kept in the Phnom Penh National Museum.

Based on my guidebook, the supposed representation of leprosy on this mysterious nude figure without sexual organs is really due to lichens. However, according to popular Khmer tradition, Jayavarman VII was a leper, which is the reason why he built so many hospitals.

And just round the corner was the Terrace of the Elephants. It was thought to serve as a 'balcony' for the king's residence. The stairways were protected by three-headed elephants (as seen below). We didn't head but instead after a quick photo, we hoped into our transport to head off to the next destination.