The Cultured Traveller 17

TERRACE OF THE ELEPHANTS
ANGKOR THOM
Terrace of the Elephants to the south of the city, from which
Jayavarman VII surveyed his army. The same terrace was
used as an audience hall and place for public ceremonies in
the 12 th century. What’s incredible about Angkor’s temples is
the feeling of being
teleported back to a
different era. Such is
the intensity of the site
that one can almost
picture the setting in its
heyday. It was really
quite surreal.
As we entered the
towering three-stepped
pyramidal 10 th century
Hindu Phimeanakas temple, built in the Khleang style, we
noticed two pools adjacent to each other. Literally
translating to “Celestial Palace”, it is said that every night
the King bathed in one of the temple’s pools and lay with a
different naga, or serpent-headed woman. If the naga didn’t
Dating from the 12th century, Bayon
is the spectacular central temple of
the ancient city, known for its
towering pillars and multitude of
stone faces, standing in the exact
center of Angkor representing the
intersection of heaven and earth
appear for some reason it was feared that the end was nigh
for the King. Concurrently, if the King didn’t show-up one
night his people took this as a sign of a possible impending
calamity.
Located southwest of
the East Mebon and
east of Angkor Thom,
and built in the late
1100s, Ta Prohm is a
veritable live battle
between nature and
ancient architecture in
the heart of the
Cambodian jungle. A
UNESCO World Heritage
site for 25 years, unlike most of Angkor’s temples beautiful
Ta Prohm has largely been left to the clutches of the living
forest. Some of you will of course recognise Ta Prohm from
the 2001 movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, in which the
heroine (played by Angelina Jolie) fights off guardian statues
116 The Cultured Traveller Jun-Jul 2017