Angkor Thom

Before I came to Cambodia, I never know there exist a place call Angkor Thom, other than Angkor Wat. Angkor Thom - Great City - was established during the reign of King Jayavarman VII as his capital city of Khmer Empire. King Jayavarman VII was famous for his massive building projects~~ As a Buddhist, these temples built under his reign was all fulled with the influence of Mahayana Buddhism. However, his successor who re-embraced Hinduism took a more drastic action in eliminating Buddhism and its influence by destroying these great temples~ No doubt most of them were already in ruins but great effort was taken to restore all these once upon a time great monument, who witnessed the rise of a great civilization......Most notable of all being the Bayon, Baphuon and Phimeanakas~

Taken infront of the South gate of Angkor Thom

Look at the Buddha face sculpture on the gate~~~

Bayon

The Bayon was Jayavarman VII's state temple~

Kinda wasted that its now in ruin~

Seemingly well preserved structures~

Level and level of archway with great carvings~

Wonder how they made these~~~ Solid stones somemore~

Most of the structures had already collapsed~ Leaving behind all these remains...

Nonetheless still awesome~

Baphuon

A much older temple than the Bayon.....way before the era of Jayavarman VII~

Pyramid concept~ But much of the inner level had already collapsed~ The French was involved in the restoration of this piece of heritage~ However, they gave up in the 90's after consumptions of huge amount of Euros~~~

All these buildings were built without cranes......and they are all solid huge stones~~~~

Freaking tall stairs~

Another ruined pyramid on the tip of Baphuon~

Phimeanakas

Another pyramid~~~ Why la all these ancient man love pyramid so much~~~~

Gulp~

Tired and hot~~~ Sweat like hell~

All these railings were gone

What was remained of the great wall of the palace, after the Khmer fled Angkor

Infront of the elephant Terrace~ No idea what is it~

For more illustrations, kindly click here~