Angkor Thom Part 2.

Moving on from the Bayon, it’s a short walk to the Baphuon Temple. This temple has largely collapsed by the 20th century so what remained was dismantled into 300,000 labelled & numbered blocks so that it could be shored up and rebuilt. This ground to a halt when the civil war broke out and the carefully detailed plans were destroyed by the Khmer Rouge after the fall of Phnom Penh.

Work began in 1996 to rebuilding the Baphuon which had become known as the largest 3D jigsaw puzzle in the world, and took 16 years to complete.

The next temple is the Phimeanakas Temple, and I thought that this was it.

But it isn’t. I think this a Gopuram or monumental gateway tower leading to Phimeanakas. Oh well ! It was rather hot.

Finally there are 2 terraces, the Terrace of the Elephants and the Terrace of the Leper King.

Terrace of the Elephants.

Terrace of the Leper King.

There was very little shade, so I called it a day, hopped into my Tuk-Tuk and got driven back to my hotel.

Angkor Thom.

To the north of Angkor Wat is Angkor Thom, the ruined capital city of the Khmer Empire. Within it are several more temples and structures. There are 4 main gates to enter Angkor Thom, and the best preserved is Southern Gate.

You cross the bridge over the artificial moat.

And your Tuk-Tuk drives through.

The major temple is the Bayon, this is one with the many faces on the towers. Unlike at Angkor Wat the day previously the sky had no ominous clouds. There were however many large puddles left over from the deluge. And puddles mean reflections.

Well it would be wrong not to make use.

There are lots of towers, and there are lots of faces. There are also monkeys, and one jumped on the my back, and they are vicious little blighters. One the temple custodians shouted something in Cambodian and it jumped off. 

 And there are lots of impressive carvings.

But mostly just towers. With faces. And it was very impressive.

I started the day at 730 and the crowds compared to Angkor Wat the day before not as crowded. The Bayon is also slightly more uneven under foot, and the central tower is being shored up in a joint South Korean-Cambodian conservation project.