ANGKOR THOM - was the last & most enduring capital city of the Khmer empire. It was established in the late 12th century by king Jayavarman VII & was the center of his massive building program. Within the city are several monuments from earlier eras as well as those established by Jayavarman and his successors. At the centre of the city the Bayon, Jayavarman's state temple, with the other major sites clustered around Victory Square immediately to the north.

The most notable earlier temples within the city are the former state temple of Baphuon, & Phimeanakas, which was incorporated into the Royal Palace. Once know as Yasodharapura, the name Angkor Thom (great/large city) has been in use from the 16th century. The last temple known to have been constructed in Angkor Thom was Mangalartha, which was dedicated in 1295. Thereafter the existing structures continued to be modified from time to time, but any new creations were in perishable materials and have not survived. In the following centuries Angkor Thom remained the capital of a kingdom, but was in decline & was abandoned some time prior to 1609, when an early western visitor wrote of an ‘uninhabited city’. It is believed to have sustained a population of 80,000 to 50,000 people.

The south gate of Angkor Thom, which is currently the main entrance to the city for visitors, is 7.2 km north of Siem Reap & 1.7 km north of the entrance to Angkor Wat. The city’s 8m high walls, with each side 3 kms long, enclose an area of 9 km² & are flanked by a moat. At each corner is a Prasat Chrung (corner shrine) built of sandstone. The faces on the 23m towers at the city gates, which were later additions, are similar to the famous faces of the Bayon. A causeway spans the moat in front of each tower, with a row of devas on the left & asuras on the right, each row holding a naga in the attitude of a tug-of-war. This appears to be a reference to the popular Angkor myth of the Churning of the Sea of Milk.

The roads from the gates at each of the cardinal points lead to the Bayon at the centre of the city. As the Bayon itself has no wall or moat of its own, those of the city are interpreted as representing the ‘mountains & oceans’ surrounding the Bayon's ‘Mount Meru’. The city once had a system of canals. The bulk of the land enclosed by the walls would have been occupied by secular buildings of which nothing remains. This area is now covered by forest.

Great photo gallery/info site for ALL of the Angkor sights http://www.orientalarchitecture.com/cambodia/angkor/

THE BAYON TEMPLE - with its gigantic carved faces, is the centerpiece of Angkor Thom city & one of the best loved of the Angkor temples. It was built at the end of the 12th century under the reign of the prolific Buddhist king Jayavarman VII. This Buddhist temple, however, was built atop a previous Hindu site & adheres to Hindu cosmology, ie its tall central tower depicts Mount Meru & its oceanic moat can be read as a metaphor for the natural world. The Bayon is enclosed within a cramped rectangle of 140m by 160m, giving the impression of being compressed within a frame which is too small for it, much like a cathedral built on the site of a village church. Although the Bayon best presents itself in the morning, when the sunlight is the most favorable, one should return at sunset when the lines & shadows are softened & the faces become mellow & subdued, taking on interesting emotive expressions.

http://www.orientalarchitecture.com/cambodia/angkor/bayon.php

BAPHUON temple: which is located within Angkor Thom, is situated just north of the Bayon & adjoins the southern enclosure of the Royal Palace. This temple mount was built in 1066 during the reign of Udayadityavarman II who ruled from 1050-1066. It was converted to a Buddhist temple in the 15th century. The temple, which used to cover a large hill, is one of the oldest temples in the world-famous Angkor complex, & was once one of the largest. However, it has been in thousands of pieces for decades & although it is being restored, it is no longer its formidable self.

The temple measures 120m by 100m at its base & stands 34m without its tower, which would have made it roughly 50m tall at tone time. Described by a visitor in the 13th century as a 'tower of bronze, with more than ten chambers at its base, & higher than the Golden Tower of the Bayon,’ suggests that the entire temple may have once been sheathed in bronze plates. A 70m long statue of a reclining Buddha was built on the west side's 2nd level, which probably required the demolition of the 8 meter tower above it, thus explaining the current absence of that tower.

The temple was built on land filled with sand, & due to its immense size, the site was unstable throughout its history. Large portions had probably already collapsed by the time the Buddha was added. By the 20th century, much of the temple had largely collapsed, & restoration efforts have since proven problematic. The first effort, which begun in 1960, was interrupted by the war, & under the Khmer Rouge's brutal regime, the plans for the temple's reconstruction were destroyed.. The 2nd attempt by a team of French-led archaeologists, to restore what has been called the world's largest jigsaw puzzle, started in 1995 & is still ongoing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baphuon

ELEPHANT TERRACE: When Jayavarman VII became king in 1181 he expanded the royal palace with several terraces in the royal square. The square, which was a vast court of about 550m by 200m, lent itself admirably to the display of processions & military parades, with the king & his courtiers viewing the proceedings from the Elephant Terrace, so called because of its elephant decorations. That terrace, which was 2.5m high & over 300 meters long, probably served as the foundation for the King's main apartments which have not survived because they were made of wood. The aforementioned 13th century visitor described the terrace as ‘ sufficient to hold more than a thousand people, decorated from end to end with lanterns & flowers, with opposing high timber scaffolding from which rockets & firecrackers were fired....’

A typical royal procession went like this: It was headed by the cavalry, then 300 to 500 gaily dressed palace girls massed together in a separate group, then other girls carrying gold & silver vessels & ornaments from the palace, then still more girls, then the palace bodyguards holding shields & lances. Then came the chariots drawn by goats & horses adorned with gold, then the Ministers & princes mounted on elephants preceded by countless bearers of scarlet parasols, then the royal wives & concubines in palanquins & chariots, or mounted on horses or elephants, with hundreds of parasols mottled with gold, then finally the King himself, holding the sacred sword & standing erect on an elephant whose tusks were sheathed in gold, accompanied by bearers of white parasols with golden shafts. All around, for extra protection, was a bodyguard of elephants drawn close together, & still more soldiers, marching in close rank.

North of the Elephant Terrace is the less impressive 'Terrace of the Leper King’ which we didn’t have time to visit. (There was no leper king. The appearance of leprosy is an illusion caused by the lichen eating away at the surface of the stone.) That terrace is sculpted with seven rows of divine characters, and was probably used for royal cremations.

More photos & info can be found here: http://www.orientalarchitecture.com/cambodia/angkor/ royalterraces.php